Basil - Chemical Components

Chemical Components

The various basils have such different scents because the herb has a number of different essential oils that come together in different proportions for various breeds. The strong clove scent of sweet basil is derived from eugenol, the same chemical as actual cloves. The citrus scent of lemon basil and lime basil reflects their higher portion of citral, which causes this effect in several plants including lemon mint, and of limonene, which gives actual lemon peel its scent. African blue basil has a strong camphor smell because it contains camphor and camphene in higher proportions. Licorice basil contains anethole, the same chemical that makes anise smell like licorice, and in fact is sometimes called "anise basil."

Other chemicals that help to produce the distinctive scents of many basils, depending on their proportion in each specific breed, include:

• citronellol (scented geraniums, roses, and citronella)
• linalool (a flowery scent also in coriander)
• myrcene (bay leaf, myrcia)
• pinene (which is, as the name implies, the chemical that gives pine oil its scent)
• ocimene
• terpineol
• linalyl acetate
• fenchyl acetate
• trans-ocimene
• 1,8-cineole
• camphor octanane
• methyl eugenol
• eugenol
• beta-caryophyllene

Based on chemical content, basils can be divided into four groups:

1. French; Ocimum basilicum, contains lower amounts of phenols
2. exotic; contains methyl chavicol (40-80%)
3. methyl cinnamate - ether 90%
4. eugenol

Basil and oregano contain large amounts of (E)-beta-caryophyllene (BCP), which might have a use in treating inflammatory bowel diseases and arthritis. BCP is the only product identified in nature that activates CB2 selectively; it interacts with one of two cannabinoid receptors (CB2), blocking chemical signals that lead to inflammation, without triggering cannabis's mood-altering effects.