Say the word "basil," and most people will think of the tasty green sauce known as pesto, which like the word pestle (as in mortar and pestle) comes from the Italian word pestare meaning to "pound" or "stamp on." This refers to the traditional way in which pesto was made, by grinding the fresh leaves in a mortar along with garlic, salt, pine nuts, cheese, and olive oil. Although we tend to associate basil with Italy and other Mediterranean countries, it actually originated in India and was brought to the Mediterranean via the spice routes in ancient times.
The whole herb, both fresh and dried, is used medicinally. Basil has been used for mild nervous disorders and for the alleviation of rheumatic pains, and, although the mechanism isn't yet understood, preliminary studies have shown that the leaf and seed may help people with type 2 diabetes control their blood sugar levels. In addition, the seed has been found to relieve constipation.
The volatile oil of basil has shown antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activity in test tube studies. It's also believed to act as a carminative, relieving intestinal gas, and as a mild diuretic.
As a natural tranquilizer, basil is said to be a tonic and calms the nervous system. It aids the digestion and also eases stomach cramps, relieves nausea, and arrests vomiting.
Basil is an important herb to detoxify an over-indulged body, where eating patterns have been erratic. It'll quickly restore the blood to its natural balance and help eliminate toxins formed by incorrect eating and environmental pollution.
Most remarkable of all, basil is the herb that lifts the spirit. It helps with heavy-heartedness and anxiety and has the ability to soothe tension, yet helps you to remain attentive and alert. A pleasant tea can be made by steeping a teaspoon of basil leaves in a cup of water for 10 minutes.
Cultivated for more than 2,000 years, basil symbolizes love. At one time, young girls would place some on their windowsill to indicate they were looking for a suitor. In Tudor times, farmer's wives gave small pots of this to visitors as parting gifts. It's also reputed that any man will fall in love with a woman from whom he accepts some basil as a gift. In present-day Romania, if a young lady offers a young man a sprig of basil and he accepts, they are officially engaged.
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In ancient Rome, the name for the herb, Basilescus, referred to Basilisk, the fire-breathing dragon. Taking the herb was thought to be a charm against the beast. With this in mind, it's interesting that up until recent times, basil has been used as an antidote to venom. The Greeks also had great respect for basil, their word for it meaning "royal" or "kingly." It was believed that only the king himself should harvest basil, and then only with the use of a golden sickle. Meanwhile, in India, basil was held to be sacred; it was believed that if a leaf of basil was buried with a person, it would guarantee their passage to heaven.
In marked contrast, however, other ideas prevailed among the ancient Greeks that basil represented hate and misfortune; many believed that scorpions would breed under pots of basil. They painted poverty as a ragged woman with a basil at her side and thought the plant would not grow unless railing and abuse were poured forth at the time of sowing. The Romans similarly believed that the more it was abused, the better it would prosper. These may represent ways to "fool the gods" so as not to bring bad luck by too much obsequy.
The physicians of old were quite unable to agree as to its medicinal value, some declaring that it was a poison, and others a precious simple. Culpeper tells us:
"Galen and Dioscorides hold it is not fitting to be taken inwardly and Chrysippus rails at it. Pliny and the Arabians defend it. Something is the matter, this herb and rue will not grow together, no, nor near one another, and we know rue is as great an enemy to poison as any that grows."
However, basil was said to create sympathy between human beings. A tradition still exists in Moldavia that a youth will love any maiden from whose hand he accepts a sprig of this plant. In Crete it symbolizes "love washed with tears," and in some parts of Italy, basil is a love token. Boccaccio's story of Isabella and the Pot of Basil, immortalized by Keats, keeps the plant in our memory. Tusser includes it among the Strewing herbs and Drayton places it first in his poem Polyolbion:
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"With Basil then I will begin Whose scent is wondrous pleasing."
John Parkinson wrote in his Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris, in 1629:
"The ordinary basill is in a manner wholly spent to make sweete or washing waters among other sweet herbs, yet sometimes it is put into nosegays. The Physicall properties are to procure a cheerfull and merry hearte whereunto the seeds is chiefly used in powder."
In Malaysia and Iran, basil is planted on graves, and in Egypt women scatter the flowers on the resting-places of those belonging to them. Some people believe if you put some basil in your wallet, you will attract money, success, and prosperity. (Nothing to lose, surely?)
Basil contains a strong-scented volatile oil composed primarily of terpenoids, particularly eugenol, thymol, and estragol. This volatile oil has shown antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activity in test tube studies, while the terpenoids in basil are important anti-cancer phytochemicals – naturally occurring substances that work in conjunction with vitamins and other nutrients to stimulate protective enzymes and block metabolic pathways associated with the development of cancer and heart disease. Terpenoids have been shown to suppress the growth of tumors and decrease the number of tumors produced.
Taken from The Kitchen medicine book
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