Property Plus
Coimbatore
For worship and therapy
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Tulasi leaves have antioxidant properties and the plant is an important ingredient of Ayurvedic medicine, writes Hema Vijay
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Herbal antidote: Tulasi leaves are effective in treating cough, sore throat and insect bites.
One of the plants that has grown into our culture and tradition is the Tulasi plant, or Ocimum tenuiflorum. Its medicinal value apart, scientists are now discovering that Tulasi is one of those plants which are particularly strong oxygenerators. Perhaps this is why the common practice of the circling the Tulasi plant evolved, so as to inhale the oxygen rich air around the plant.
The medicinal value of the plant is well known, and traditionally most households in India used to sport the Tulasi plant, either for worship or for its therepeutic power.
The leaves contain a rich store of vitamin C, carotene, calcium and phosphorus and the leaf extracts are effective in treating cough, sore throat and also in soothing insect bites.
Tulasi leaves also possess antioxidant properties and the plant is an important ingredient of Ayurvedic medicine directed against several other disorders. But it is not advisable to overdose on it either, as the leaves are said to facilitate birth-control.
Tulasi grows well in the usual soil mixture consisting of one part sand, one part red earth and one part manure.
Baby Tulasi plants are available in all nurseries. The plant requires daily watering of about half a litre everyday.
The plant can be raised in both ample sunlight as well as semi-shade conditions.
Two varieties of Tulasi are common, the dark ‘Krishna Tulasi’ and the light ‘Rama Tulasi’.
The darker variety is difficult to raise, but is more potent.
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