Basil also known as French Basil or Sweet Basil or Tulsi is an erect glabrous herb, 30-90 cm high is indigenous to India. The leaves of basil have numerous oil glands with aromatic volatile oil. The herb bears cluster of small white lipped flowers in racemes. The freshly picked bright green leaves turns brownish green when dried and become brittle and curled. The major types are American Basil, French Basil, Egyptian Basil and Indian Basil.
 
Indian name for Basil: 
Assamese : Tulasii Hindi : Bawari bawari,Ban thulasi, �Tulsi Bengali : Babui tulsi Gujarati : Sabje Kannada : Amli, Huli Malayalam : Pachcha/sivatulasi Marathi : Sabja/Tulasa Oriya : durlabha Punjabi : Imli, Tulasigidda,Tulasi Sanskrit : Barbari,Bana thulasi,Tungi Tamil :Tulasi,Tirunirrippachai Telugu : Tulsi-chettu Urdu : Imli
Foreign name for Basil:
Spanish : Alba Laca French : Basilic German : Basilienkraut Swedish : Basilkort Arabic : Raihan Dutch : Basilicum Italian : Basilico Portuguese : Manjericao Russian : Basilik Japanese : Meboki Chinese : Lo-le Thai : Horapa,Horapha English : Sweet Basil