Tulsi LeavesOcimum tenuiflorum

Shade-dried leaf with the aroma intact, low in stalk, supplied cut or whole.

About this material

Tulsi leaf is dried in shade and moving air, never in sun, because the aroma sits in surface oil glands that a hot drying floor drives off within hours. Correctly dried leaf still releases a clove-like scent when a handful is rubbed; leaf that smells of hay was dried too hot or too slowly. The leaf is oval with a shallowly toothed margin and a short stalk, and both surfaces carry sparse hairs. Stalk is kept low, since it is woody and carries little of the aroma. Both green and purple-tinged types are grown; the purple type is usually sold as Krishna Tulsi.

Also called

Tulsi, Holy Basil, Krishna Tulsi