An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Ocimum basilicum

Ocimum basilicum (Lamiaceae)

Common Names
Basil; Sweet Basil; Cuban Basil
How this plant is used
Food

Select a Results View:

View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
ALPHA-CADINENE 0 Plant Duke, J. A. Writeups or information summaries on approximately 2,000 economic plants, USDA, ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705.
ALPHA-CARYOPHYLLENE 0 Shoot Essent. Oil *
ALPHA-CEDRENE 3 Essential Oil *
ALPHA-CEDRENE 3 Plant Duke, J. A. Writeups or information summaries on approximately 2,000 economic plants, USDA, ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705.
ALPHA-COPAENE 0 Plant 0.8 -0.54 Die Nahrung. Pino, J., Rosado, A., Goire, I., Roncal, E., and Garcia, I. 1993. Analysis of the Essential Oil from Cuban Basil. Die Nahrung 37:(5): 501-504.
ALPHA-COPAENE 0 Plant 0.8 20.0 -0.44 *
ALPHA-COPAENE 0 Shoot Essent. Oil 300.0 3600.0 -1.00 *
ALPHA-CUBEBENE 0 Essential Oil 1200.0 -0.73 *
ALPHA-CUBEBENE 0 Plant *
ALPHA-CUBEBENE 0 Shoot Essent. Oil 2800.0 *
ALPHA-FARNESENE 0 Plant *
ALPHA-FENCHENE 0 Essential Oil *
ALPHA-FENCHONE 0 Shoot Essent. Oil 1300.0 *
ALPHA-FENCHYL-ALCOHOL 0 Shoot Essent. Oil 2800.0 *
ALPHA-GUAIENE 0 Plant *
ALPHA-GUAIENE 0 Shoot Essent. Oil 1300.0 *
ALPHA-HUMULENE 2 Essential Oil 31300.0 -0.20 *
ALPHA-HUMULENE 2 Leaf Essent. Oil 5650.0 -0.52 *
ALPHA-HUMULENE 4 Plant 16.0 -0.63 Die Nahrung. Pino, J., Rosado, A., Goire, I., Roncal, E., and Garcia, I. 1993. Analysis of the Essential Oil from Cuban Basil. Die Nahrung 37:(5): 501-504.
ALPHA-HUMULENE 2 Shoot Essent. Oil 6700.0 11800.0 0.82 *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Psychoactive 2 R.J. Hixtable (Huxtable, R.J. (as T. Max). 1992. This and That:The Essential Pharmacology of Herbs and Spices. Tips 13:15-20 Huxtable, R.J. 1992b. The Myth of Benficent Nature. The Risk of Herbal Preparations. Anns. Intern. Med. 117(2):165-6; Huxtable, R.
Psychotropic 1 Uchida, U., Ohta, H., Niwa, M., Mori, A., Nonaka, G-i., Nishioka, I., and Zaki, M. 1989. Prolongation of Life Span of Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRSP) Ingesting Persimmon Tannin. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 38(4): 1049-1052, 1990.
PTK-Inhibitor 3 *
Quinone-Reductase-Inducer 4 Uda, Y., Price, K. R., Williamson, G., Rhodes, M. J. C. 1997. Induction of the Anticarcinogenic Marker Enzyme, Quinone Reductase, in Murine Hepatoma Cells In Vitro by Flavonoids. Cancer Lett., 120 (2): 213-216.
Radioprotective 4 *
Refrigerant 1 Yamamoto, A., Umemori, S., and Muranishi, S. 1993. Absorption Enhancement of Intrapulmonary Administered Insulin by Various Absorption Enhancers and Protease Inhibitors in Rats. J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 46: 14-18, 1994.
Renoirritant 1 Newall, C. A., Anderson, L. A. and Phillipson, J. D. 1996. Herbal Medicine - A Guide for Health-care Professionals. The Pharmaceutical Press, London. 296pp.
Respirainhibitor 1 Merck 11th Edition
Respirastimulant 1 Huang, K. C. 1993. The Pharmacology of Chinese Herbs. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL 388 pp.
Roborant 1 Merck 11th Edition
Rubefacient 4 *
Schizophrenigenic 1 Davies, S., and Stewart, A. 1990. Nutritional Medicine. Avon Books, New York. 509pp.
Secretogogue 2 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
Secretolytic 2 Bisset, N.G., ed. 1994. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL. 566 pp.
Sedative 31 Ortiz de Urbina, A.V., Martin*, M.L., Montero, M.J., Moran, A., and San Roman, L. 1988. Sedating and Antipyretic Activity of the Essential Oil of Calamintha sylvatica subsp. Ascendens. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 25: 165-171, 1989.
Serotoninergic 2 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Soap 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Sodium-Sparing 1 Iwu, M.M. 1993. Handbook of African Medicinal Plants. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL 435 pp.
Spasmogenic 6 Fitoterapia No.59-1984.
Spasmolytic 1 *