The Basil Plant: The King of Herbs

And so, I decided to submit a query on basil plants to one of my favorite venues: HARO aka Help a Reporter. I’ve used it on my other sites to generate some pages and didn’t know what to expect. After all, what could I possibly ask about a basil plant and worst yet, who would care?

So I posted my simple little query:

Title: How does Basil Enhance your Meals?

Query: Basil is commonly referred to as "The King of Herbs." How do you use it to enhance your meals? Do you have a favorite recipe using basil? Tell us about your experience growing the different varieties of basil.

Not exciting ... nothing mystical ... nothing awe inspiring, but ... Well surprise, surprise ... the response was immediate and overwhelming. Far greater than anything I experienced with either my Outer Banks site or my Fastpitch Softball Coaching site. Fifteen people responded effusing about why basil is so wonderful and how it enhances everything from meals to drinks to medical conditions. So, I’ve decided to list every response because if people took the time to answer my simple little query on the basil plant, it deserves a mention. It’s going to take a little while to get everything in, but hopefully, those bolded words will quickly turn into hyper-links to recipes and other uses for the King of Herbs: Basil. The recipes that the respondents supplied will appear both on this page and on the Basil Recipe page.

The first set of responses was all around happy memories that using basil conjured up. From trips to Italy to refreshing summertime meals to bringing out a piece of summer on those cold dreary winter nights, basil seemed to deliver that magic touch. In addition, some folks even shared some of their gardening secrets on how to make sure you always had plenty of basil plants around when you need them.

Oh, and did I mention recipes? We got recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We got recipes for that cool summer drink, or for just the right appetizer. We got recipes from the avid foodie, from the famous, the wannabe famous and just plan folks. Not sure which is my favorite yet, because haven’t made it through all of them, but by all means, share your thoughts on what you like in the basil recipe page or, better yet, share your recipe (and add a picture to draw folks in)!

And finally, there was the submission from James Geiger MD. Dr Geiger wrote:

I love basil and other spices as well. I wrote this about basil here.

Basil, Ocimum basilicum has undergone successful antiviral invitro testing of a few it’s essential components, namely apigenin, linalool and ursolic acid against (herpes viruses (HSV), adenoviruses (ADV) and hepatitis B virus) and RNA viruses (coxsackievirus B1 (CVB1) and enterovirus 71 (EV71).

I am not quite sure what that means, and I am not endorsing basil as a cure-all remedy for what ails you (except maybe boring food), but to read more about what Dr Geiger has to say about the basil plant, follow this link.

If you want to become part of adding great information about basil on BasilBasics, don’t wait for my next HARO query. Feel free to add your thoughts to any of the pages where we invite you to participate. Like the one below ...

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