Tulasi

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Tulsi

What the texts say Tulasi does

• Kaphahara — pacifies kapha
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Hridya — good for the heart
• Daurgandhyanashana — removes foul odour

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Acidity or burning in those prone to it

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here for ordinary domestic use. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Classical kasahara and jwarahara. Antiplatelet activity is documented.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I

Eugenol in Ocimum sanctum. The several Ocimum species differ markedly in their volatile oil, so the species matters before the assay does.

These are the marker and the identity test for this dravya, and they are not a test Laisha has run on anything. Laisha does not state the numeric limits here: the assay, ash and extractive figures must be read from the current edition of the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, because a wrong limit printed here is a number a laboratory would act on. The entries in this library that DO carry figures carry them because each one was checked.

Katu and tikta, both with ushna virya and katu vipaka — a dravya with no cooling element anywhere in its rasapanchaka, which is the usual contrast with amalaki.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Bahumanjari describes the many flower spikes and is the feature a student is taught to recognise it by. Apetarakshasi records the plant's protective reputation rather than a property.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Other Ocimum species — sweet basil, and the lemon-scented kinds — are grown and sold as tulasi in several markets, and dried leaf of any of them looks much the same. The two classical varieties, the dark Krishna and the light Rama, are distinguished on the plant by stem and leaf colour and not at all once dried.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 97 per cent confidence. Ocimum sanctum L. is the name in most Ayurvedic literature and is a synonym of this one. Ocimum basilicum, sweet basil, is a different species and is not tulasi.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Ocimum is the Greek okimon, a fragrant herb. Tenuiflorum means slender-flowered. Note tenuiflorum, not sanctum — sanctum is the synonym you will still see everywhere.

Tulasi is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu among the flowering dravya and is grown in households across India for reasons that are religious as much as medicinal. Ayurveda records it as acting on kapha and vata. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the leaf does in a body.

Constituents. The leaf carries a volatile oil whose composition differs markedly between the varieties and with the season — eugenol predominates in some chemotypes and methyl eugenol or methyl chavicol in others. Two tulasi plants can therefore be chemically quite different.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.