Within India, tulsi has been adopted into spiritual rituals and lifestyle practices that provide a vast array of health benefits that are just beginning to be confirmed by modern science. Within Ayurveda, tulsi is known as “The Incomparable One,” “Mother Medicine of Nature” and “The Queen of Herbs,” and is revered as an “elixir of life” that is without equal for both its medicinal and spiritual properties. Tulsi is an aromatic shrub in the basil family Lamiaceae (tribe ocimeae) that is thought to have originated in north central India and now grows native throughout the eastern world tropics. The solutions to this current health crisis are therefore more likely to be found in the homes and behaviors of individuals than in medical clinics, hospital or pharmacies. We are in the midst of a global pandemic of obesity, diabetes, cancer, dementia, depression and other chronic diseases caused by modern lifestyles and their associated lack of physical activity, high intake of sugar, fat, salt, alcohol and tobacco and exposure to a toxic cocktail of industrial chemicals. Thus, while industrialization has led to longer lifespans and vast increases in human populations, it is now recognized that the greatest causes of death and disease on the planet are preventable lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

Urban dwellers are also faced with increasing wealth inequality, social isolation, excessive noise, air, water and soil pollution and disconnection from nature. Mobile devices and the web have vastly increased the pace of life so that many people feel that they are now drowning in an ever-expanding ocean of data, while industrial agriculture has burdened us with increasing exposure to unhealthy processed and packaged food and a plethora of pesticides, food packaging materials and other toxic industrial chemicals. The use of tulsi in daily rituals is a testament to Ayurvedic wisdom and provides an example of ancient knowledge offering solutions to modern problems.ĭespite the many wonders of science and industry, modern life is fraught with stress. Cultivation of tulsi plants has both spiritual and practical significance that connects the grower to the creative powers of nature, and organic cultivation offers solutions for food security, rural poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and climate change.

Tulsi's broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, which includes activity against a range of human and animal pathogens, suggests it can be used as a hand sanitizer, mouthwash and water purifier as well as in animal rearing, wound healing, the preservation of food stuffs and herbal raw materials and traveler's health. Tulsi has also been shown to counter metabolic stress through normalization of blood glucose, blood pressure and lipid levels, and psychological stress through positive effects on memory and cognitive function and through its anxiolytic and anti-depressant properties. Tulsi has been found to protect organs and tissues against chemical stress from industrial pollutants and heavy metals, and physical stress from prolonged physical exertion, ischemia, physical restraint and exposure to cold and excessive noise. There is mounting evidence that tulsi can address physical, chemical, metabolic and psychological stress through a unique combination of pharmacological actions. Of all the herbs used within Ayurveda, tulsi ( Ocimum sanctum Linn) is preeminent, and scientific research is now confirming its beneficial effects. The predominant cause of global morbidity and mortality is lifestyle-related chronic diseases, many of which can be addressed through Ayurveda with its focus on healthy lifestyle practices and regular consumption of adaptogenic herbs.

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