{"id":95,"date":"2009-11-09T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T04:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/2009\/11\/09\/monday-magnoliophyte-basil\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T09:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:09:18","slug":"monday-magnoliophyte-basil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/2009\/11\/09\/monday-magnoliophyte-basil\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Magnoliophyte: Basil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p>Basil is a low-growing annual herb of the mint (Lamiaceae) family, used frequently in Italian and Southeast Asian cuisine. The plant is native to South and Southwest Asia, having been cultivated there for over 5,000 years. Due to the abundance of phytochemicals in varying quantities, many cultivars exist with intrinsically different scents and flavors, depending on the chemical concentrations. The standard &#8220;sweet&#8221; or &#8220;Genovese&#8221; basil scent comes from eugenol, a phenylpropanoid compound also present in cloves, while lemon basil contains high amounts of citral, and licorice basil contains anethole. There are over 100 types of basil, each with its own unique fragrance.<\/p>\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/imgs\/plants\/basil.jpg\" alt=\"Basil\"><br>\nEudicots; Asterids; Lamiales; Lamiaceae; <em>Ocimum basilicum<\/em><\/center>\n<p>The word <em>basil<\/em> comes from the Greek word for &#8220;king&#8221;, and was believed to have grown where St. Constantine and Helen discovered the biblical cross. Other religions around the world place importance on the plant, involving it with ritual and belief. The name is fitting, considering its designation as &#8220;the king of herbs&#8221; by many culinary experts. While many dishes use the herb as a flavoring additive, Italian pesto requires large amounts of the leaves blended with oil and pine nuts to create a thick sauce, and sometimes basil is used in fruit jams and jellies. And of course, as with many aromatic herbs, the plant has several health benefits, such as having antioxidant and anti-microbial properties.<\/p>\n<p>On a cultivation side note, I grow a great deal of basil, and not always by choice; the plant, when exposed to the right amount of light, watering, and pruning, can grow VERY rapidly, often to the point of over-shading nearby herbs. I suppose this is not actually a problem, as it just means I need to make more pesto! Below is a recipe:<\/p>\n<strong>Italian Pesto<\/strong>\n<ul><li>2 cups fresh Genovese (sweet) basil leaves<\/li>\n<li>1\/3 cup pine nuts<\/li>\n<li>3 cloves garlic (I like garlic)<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup olive oil<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup Parmesan cheese<\/li><\/ul>\n<p>Pulse garlic with pine nuts in food processor. Add basil, and pulse again. While on, pour oil in steady stream into mixture, scraping down sides with spatula (don&#8217;t let it hit the blades!). Add cheese and pulse until blended, with dash of salt and pepper.\n<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}