American Basil

Ocimum guatemalense Gandoger

In Amazonia, where this plant is known as albahaca, iroro, pichana albaca, or pichana blanca, it is said that this basil species is hallucinogenic (Duke and Vasquez 1994*). The leaves are used as an ayahuasca additive. The herbage has ethnomedicinal use as an analgesic in Mexico and Guatemala (Alcorn 1984, 715*; Ott 1993, 416*). The plant is known as xkakaltun in the Yucatan, where it is regarded as a honey plant (Barrera M. et al. 1976, 263*) and is used in an abortifacient medicine (R~itsch and Probst 1983). The Siona Indians call the aromatic plant gana ma'nya, "chicha perfume:' and it is sin1ilarly known as kana na'nya among the Secoya (Vickers and Plowman 1984, 16*). It apparently was once used as a chicha additive. In Brazil, where the plant is known as mangericao, it is used in the Candomble cult as an ingredient in the initiatory drink (see madzoka medicine). It has folk medicinal significance in the Caribbean. The plant contains an essential oil (Wong 1976, 137*) whose constituents include camphene, cineol, linalool, myrcene, cis-trans-ocimene, a-pinene, fj-pinene, a-terpineol, aromandrene, fj-caryophyllene, fj-elemene, L\-elemene, ')'-elemene, a-humulene, neriol, and eugenol (Argueta V. et al. 1994,89*; Maia et al. 1988). Sacred basil (Ocimum sanctum 1. [syn. Ocimum tenuiflorum 1.]), a relative that is better known by the names tulasi, tulsi, and madura-tala (Knecht 1985), is not itself psychoactive,334 although it is chewed as a substitute for betel quids (Macmillan 1991,424*).

Knecht, Sigrid. 1985. Die heilige Heilpflanze Tulasi. In "Ethnobotanik," special issue, Curare 3/85:95-100. Maia, J. G. S., et al. 1988. Uncommon Brazilian essential oils of the Labiatae and Compositae. Dev. Food Science 18:177-88. Ratsch, Christian, and Heinz J. Probst. 1983. Krauter zur Familienplanung. Sexualmedizin 12 (4): 173-76.