216 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 
basil oil, which is a yellowish-green, volatile oil lighter than 
water. Parry * states that it has an excellent fragrance and is 
used in making mignonette extract. The yield of oil obtained 
from the herb is about 1.5 per cent or less. 
Ocimum basilicum is an erect, branched under-shrub 0.5 to 
1.5 meters in height. It is smooth, or somewhat hairy, and very 
aromatic. The leaves are entire or slightly toothed and 1.5 to 
8 centimeters long. The flowers are borne in racemes which 
are 8 to 15 centimeters long. The corolla is pink or purplish 
and 9 to 10 millimeters long. 
This species is apparently common and widely distributed 
from the Batanes Islands to southern Mindanao. 
€ 
Genus OCIMUM 
OCIMUM SANCTUM L. SuLAst or Hoty BASIL. 
Local names: Albahdca + (Spanish); balandi (Tagalog) ; bidai (Iloko) ; 
kolokogo (Tayabas); kaluwi (Basilan); kamangi (Bisaya); katigau (Mi- 
samis) ; kamangkdu (Camarines); lokoloké (Polillo); magau (Cotabato) ; 
sulasi (Tagalog). 
HOLY BASIL OIL 
This species, known as holy basil or tulsi, is the sacred plant 
of India. 
Watt ¢ states that: 
The Tulsi is the most sacred plant in the Hindu religion; it is conse- 
quently found in or near almost every Hindu house throughout India.® 
Hindu poets say that it protects from misfortune and sanctifies and guides 
to heaven all who cultivate it. * * * Under favourable circumstances, 
it grows to a considerable size, and furnishes a woody stem large enough 
to make beads for the rosaries used by Hindus on which they count the 
number of recitations of their deity’s name. 
According to Bacon § 13.86 kilos of leaves which were forty-, 
eight hours old at the time of distillation gave 83.3 grams of a 
green-colored oil (0.6 per cent). This oil had a sweet, anise- 

like odor and the following properties :—Refractive index, N= 
: : : BOP an! - . 30° 
1.5070; optical rotation; A D =0; specific gravity, 30° 
—(0.952; saponification number, 2.8. 

'* Parry, E. J., Chemistry of essential oils and artificial perfumes, 
page 308. 
+ This name belongs properly to the preceding species. 
~ Watt, G., Dictionary of the economic products of India, Volume 5 
(1891), page 444. 
§ Bacon, R. F., Philippine terpenes and essential oils, IV. Philippine 
Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 5 (1910), page 261. 
