Basil is an annual herbaceous plant native to Asia and other tropical regions; it is cultivated as a culinary herb throughout Europe. The plant is 15 to 45 cm tall with an erect stem, opposite oblique leaves and white or purplish flowers arranged in clusters.
The plant flowers from May to September and has an intense, pleasant, characteristic odor. Owing to widespread hybridation, several
varieties of plants are known as basil, each yielding on distillation essential oil of different aromatic character. Sweet basil has a
warm, intense, spicy aroma with fresh, mint-like flavor; it can have a camphor-like note.
Basil oil is obtained by steam distillation of the flowering tops or the entire plant of Ocimum basilicum L. It may be
distinguished by other types, such as basil oil, Comoros type, or basil oil; Réunion type by its more floral odor and its physicochemical constants.
Basil oil, linalool-type (European type; Mediterranean type) is produced
mainly in the Mediterranean area (France, Egypt). It is light yellow to
amber-colored oil with typical fresh, spicy odor.
d2020 0.895–0.920; n20D 1.4750–1.4950; α20D ?2°to ?14°; content by GC:
linalool 45–62%; methyl chavicol trace to 30%; eugenol 2–15%. It is
used for food flavoring and in perfumery. For additional constituents of these
two basil oil types.
It is a pale-yellow to yellow liquid with a floral, spicy odor. It is soluble in most fixed oils and
with turbidity, in mineral oils: 1 mL is soluble in 20 mL of propylene glycol with slight haziness, but it is insoluble in glycerin and
mineral oil (FCC, 1996).
Depending on the growing site and production conditions, the essential oil obtained by distillation may exhibit completely different organoleptic and physical–chemical characteristics. Well-known types include (1) the Réunion
type produced in the Comoros Islands, (2) the Mediterranean type or true sweet basil, (3) the Bulgarian or methylcinnamate types,
and (4) the phenolic type from Java. The Réunion and Mediterranean type are discussed under Derivatives. The phenolic type of
basil (Ocimum gratissimum) is readily distinguished from true sweet basil by the presence of approximately 60% eugenol and some
thymol in the essential oil.
Found in the leaves of Ocimum basilicum L.
The properties of basil oil (Ocimum basilicum) are noted to include stimulating, tonic, purifying, and anti-microbial. Basil oil’s constituents include methyl chavicol, eucalyptol, linalool, and estragol. It is often used as a carrier oil and for fragrance, and may have some application in acne preparations.
Extractives and their physically modified derivatives. Ocimum basilicum, Labiatae.
By steam distillation of the flowering tops of the plant Ocimum basilicum L.
Essential oil composition
Food Chemicals Codex . European sweet basil oil may contain about 55 % methyl chavicol and 35 % of alcohols calculated as linalool, along with other components
Moderately toxic by
ingestion. A sktn and eye irritant. When
heated to decomposition it emits acrid
smoke and irritating fumes.
