Basil is considered one of the healthiest herbs because of its impressive list of nutrients that it possess.
The alkaline herb provides powerful minerals that include iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, and potassium. Also, basil has essential antioxidants, antibacterial properties and DNA-protecting nutrients that protect the cells from free radical damage. This ultimately helps to prevent cholesterol in blood from oxidizing, heart attacks, atherosclerosis, and stroke.
Another illness that basil is good for is tuberculosis. In a study conducted by the University of Karachi, researchers examined the traditional use of basil to treat multiple respiratory diseases and the symptoms of tuberculosis. The test were to see if basil could be an efffective herb in fighting tuberculosis symptoms. The scientist concluded that basil could be used to formulate new and natural anti-tuberculosis treatments.
The researcher abstract in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) reads:
‘Inhibition of M. tuberculosis by pure compounds from O. basilicum supports the use of this plant in ethnomedicine as a remedy for symptoms of tuberculosis. The results also suggest that the activity of the plant may be due to a synergistic effect of active compounds including those investigated in the present studies, and hence this plant is a potential candidate for obtaining further new antituberculosis natural products.’
