Tulsi as Medicine
Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum = O. tenuiflorum)
(Sacred Basil, Holy basil, Tulasi)
Family: Lamiaceae
Plant description: Tulsi is native to India, where it often graces shrines and homes as an aromatic perennial shrub. Tulsi is grown as an annual herb in temperate climates. The tulsi plant is pleasing to the eye, with an upright, open and branching form. The fragrance of the leaves is also quite attractive-spicy and complex, often resembling clove. The taste is excellent, especially when the dried leaves are brewed into tea. The flowers of purple or blue occur on multiple upright racemes.
Types of Tulsi: Four main forms are generally recognized: Krishna Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) with leaves of purple, Rama Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) with stems of purple, Kapoor Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) with leaves of green, and Vana Tulsi (Ocimum gratissimum), which is unmodified from its wild form. Tulsi exhibits great variation across its range and among the several domesticated cultivars. Variations in soil type and rainfall may also equate to a difference in the size and form of the plants as well as their medicinal strength and efficacy.
Tulsi is a medicinal plant that confers longevity. Its therapeutic use proves miraculously successful. Each part of the Tulsi plant possesses medicinal properties. If eleven Tulsi leaves are taken with four black pepper seeds, malaria, periodic fever and all other ailments will be cured.Gradhrasivata, or sharp pain in nerves of the body. If steam from boiling water containing Tulsi leaves is used for fomentation of the affected part, much relief` is obtained.
Elderly people who take Tulsi do not experience weakness of old age.Giving up tea and tobacco change over to Tulsi decoction as a substitute. Tulsi becomes more efficacious when used with Yogic asanas and breath-control exercises. To lose weight or to gain weight. Tulsi has proved to be an infallible remedy for poor digestion, lack of appetite, constipation, flatulence, acidity and other disorders of the digestive tract.
Cure by Tulsi - The Medicinal Plant
Diseases in Women
• Excessive bleeding can be gradually reduced with two gms of each dry ginger, gum of a neem tree, ajwan seeds, tamal patra, and equal amount of five parts of the Tulsi plant ground into powder. The powder is boiled in 100 gms of water till one-fourth of the water remains. The extract is cooled and strained.
• If half a glass of water boiled with Tulsi leaves is taken for each of the three days starting from the day of menstruation, the probability of conception is greatly reduced.
• Itching of the skin over the abdomen and the breasts of a pregnant woman is relieved by the application paste of Van Tulsi.
• Application of medicated oil prepared with 125 gms of Van Tulsi leaves in 500 gms of seasame oil previously subjected to the process of `moorchhana`, relieves the pains associated with confinement.
• Tulsi seeds soaked overnight for twelve hours in water, crushed well in the morning and administered with sugar relieve the pains consequent upon delivery.
• Breast milk will improve in quality if the woman is given a mixture of 20 gms of Tulsi juice, 20 gms of the juice of maize leaves, 10 gms of the juice-or extract-`Of asgandh (ashwagandha), and 10 gms of honey, for seven days following delivery.
• Leucorrhoea can be completely cured by treatment with 20 gms of Tulsi juice with rice water, meanwhile restricting the diet to rice and milk, or rice and ghee for the duration of the treatment.
• Regular use of powdered roots of Tulsi enfolded in betel leaves stops the bleeding of the internal lining of the stomach.
• Tulsi will make the uterus healthy and strong.
• To ensure conception take five parts of the Tulsi plant, saffron, gangeran, the lighter coloured variety of grass known as `dhro` (gnodon), putrakanda and shatavary ground together. Mixed with milk collected directly from a cow and sugar. Take this every day for ten days from the day of menstruation.
• Regular periods can be restored by 125 gms of Tulsi seeds, black seasame seeds, tender shoots of the cotton plant, tender shoots of bamboo plants and 220 gms of aged jaggery mixed with the powder. This is effective even in cases of women with amenorrhoea.
• Drinking Tulsi juice will lessen the severity of labour pains.
Diseases in Men
• Leaves of Tulsi, hadiakarshan, amarvel, and droppings of camels crushed and boiled in cow`s urine to a thick paste applied on the scrotum is beneficial in hydrocele.
• In case of difficulty in stopping urination, drink Tulsi juice added to double quantity of grape juice, sugarcane juice or coconut milk.
• For nocturnal emissions soak 10 gms of Tulsi seeds overnight in water in an earthen pot. Grind them well in the morning with 15 almond kernels and 16 small cardamoms. Add sugar as required and drink the mixture. This will prevent nocturnal emissions.
• Small pieces of Tulsi roots chewed with betel leaves also prevent nocturnal emissions.
• For thinness of seminal fluid take 50 gms of Tulsi leaves, 40 gms of musli, 40 gms of the pods of poshi, 30 gms of kavach seeds, 50 gms of gokhru (small caltrops) and 60 gms of sugar. Grind to a fine powder. Take 10 gms of this powder with cow`s milk every day.
• Mix five gms each of Tulsi seeds, sudhamooli, small cardamom seeds, musli and white gokhru, and powder them. Take five gms with sugar with milk every morning and evening.
• Cut Tulsi roots into thin slices and take with betel leaves to stop premature ejaculation.
• Treat sujak, a urinary disease with five gms each of Tulsi seeds, seeds of small cardamoms and nitre powdered together. Five gms swallowed with milk diluted with double quantity of water.
• Prepare a smooth paste by grinding Tulsi seeds with a little water. Boil the paste with twice the amount of neem oil till it turns black. Apply the oil on the sores caused by syphilis and other sores and wounds too.
• Tulsi seeds yield a very sticky paste, which is useful in disorders of the urinary tract.
• In case of thinness of the seminal fluid, take 15 gms of Tulsi seeds with 30 gms of aged sugar syrup every morning and evening.
• Soak five gms of Tulsi seeds overnight in 125 gms of water. Mash them in the morning and drink it. Regular use proves beneficial in gonorrhoea, thinness of seminal fluid, dysuria and allied diseases.
• Mix Tulsi seeds and jaggery. Roll into pea-sized pills. one every morning and evening with cow`s milk for four months, there will be an increase in the rate of formation of semen, the blood vessels will be strengthened, digestion will improve and impotence will be cured.
• Tulsi seeds ground with cumin seeds and sugar, taken with milk, are efficacious in the treatment of pains caused by stones in the bladder, burning sensation while passing urine and inflammation in the perineal region.
• Crushed Tulsi seeds taken with honey will cure all abnormalities of the genital system.
• Regular use of Tulsi seeds eliminates pain accompanying urination.
• Powdered Shyam Tulsi mixed with lemon juice, if taken regularly, cures all abnormalities of the urinary system.
• A mixture of equal parts of the powder of Tulsi leaves dried, powdered methi seeds and powdered ashwagandha, taken with cow`s milk is also an effective remedy for gonorrhoea. It also improves the quality of the seminal fluid.
Take 100 gms of Tulsi leaves, 20 gms each of chopchini, taseemkhana, peeparimool, naagkesar and akkalgaro (palatory root). Grind each of these separately to a fine powder, and soak each one in aged honey, using in all 200 gms of honey. Keep aside for 24 hours. Prepare a thick syrup of 500 gms of white (refined) sugar. Let it cool. Then stir the soaked ingredients along with the honey into the syrup. Now grind 100 gms each of saffron, seeds of small cardamoms and javantri (mace) to a fine powder, add these powders also to the syrup, stir well and store in a glass jar. 10 to 20 gms of this preparation are to be taken regularly with cow`s milk sweetened with sugar, the amount being adjusted according to the state of your health. This proves efficacious in curing deterioration in the quality of the seminal fluid, loss of it through urine, and other allied disorders. Celibacy should be observed and diet should be restricted.
Diseases in children
• To maintain children`s health two gms of Tulsi juice three to four times a day will prevent all types of sickness.
• In case of fever caused by a cold, Tulsi juice should be smeared on the chest and forehead. The child should be made to inhale the vapours emanating from the juice, and should also be given a teaspoonful of the juice with half a teaspoonful of honey.
• If the child brings up worms with its vomit, or excretes worms with faeces, give it a little powdered vavding, kakcha or himej with ten gms of Tulsi juice two or three times a day.
• If an infant develops a cough, administer five gms of Tulsi leaves, five gms of kakdashingi and five gms of ativish buds crushed together, made into a paste with honey and the mother`s milk.
• Cough can also be cured by letting the child lick Tulsi juice mixed with jethi madh (yashti madhu) juice.
• A mixture of Tulsi leaf juice and kasondara leaf juice is also a good remedy for coughs.
• Boil ten gms of Tulsi leaves, ten gms of methi seeds and five gms of kadu twigs in 50 gms of water till only one-fourth of the water remains. Cool and strain. Administration of this extract is beneficial in fevers preceded by cold rigours, such as malaria.
• If the abdomen of a baby is distended due to the accumulation of gas, the condition can be relieved by giving it five to ten gms of Tulsi juice, the exact amount given depending on the age of the baby.
• In case of diarrhoea accompanying teething, powdered Tulsi leaves should be given to the child with pomegranate syrup.
• Letting the baby lick a mixture of Tulsi juice and honey will bring quick relief in cough and sore throat.
• If a cough is due to excessive phlegm, the juice of Shyama Tulsi mixed with honey will help. This mixture is of great value in the treatment of a child with a tendency to vomit frequently.
• In case a baby is suffering from colic, giving it a little powdered stone (dry) ginger with Tulsi leaf juice will afford relief.
• Massaging the gums with Tulsi leaf juice mixed with honey will help the baby cut its teeth easily, without the usual troubles associated with teething.
• Five to ten drops of Tulsi leaf juice given with water every day will strengthen the muscles and bones of the infant.
• Influenza can be cured by regular administration of 30 to 60 drops of a mixture of 15 gms of Tulsi leaf juice, 15 gms of honey, five gms of ginger juice and five gms of powdered ajwan seeds.
• Heat 200 gms of Tulsi leaf juice with 125 gms of water. Let the liquid simmer for one hour on a low flame. Prepare a thick syrup of 500 gms of sugar, and stir the mixture into the syrup. Administration of three to five gms of this preparation to a child cures fever, cough and shortness of breath.
• If there is a whistling sound heard from the lungs because of the accumulation of phlegm give milk in which Tulsi leaves have been boiled.
• The extract of Tulsi leaves cures a child of `vistambh`, or thrombosis.
• The extract of Tulsi roots sweetened with sugar will relieve constipation and distension of the stomach, ensuring a satisfactory bowel movement.
• Ten gms of Tulsi leaves and ten gms of peepar ground together and rolled into small pills. Three or four of these pills given to a child every day will cure coughs, including whooping cough.
• Take five gms of each of these ingredients: Tulsi inflorescences, vachh, small peepar, and mulethi. Add 25 gms of sugar. Add 250 gms of water and boil till only 100 gms of water are left. Cool and strain. Administration of five gms of this extract five to six times during the day and also during the night will cure the child of dry hollow cough.
• An extract of Tulsi leaves and inflorescences given with jaggery to a child will afford relief in difficulty in breathing.
• Powdered bark of Tulsi roots given with honey helps an obese child to shed some of the fat.
• Extract of Tulsi is an effective remedy for liver disorders of children.
Treatment for Poisons:
• In case of poisoning of the system through any agency, the maximum possible amount of Tulsi juice must be taken.
• If opium or any other poisonous material like datura or aconite has been inadvertently imbibed, give the patient a paste of Tulsi leaves mixed with ghee obtained from cow`s milk. 100:500 gms of ghee should be given in this manner. If no improvement is noticed even after this treatment, a similar quantity of the mixture should be administered at intervals, till the effects of the poison disappear.
• Administering 50 gms of Tulsi juice every day will eliminate the effects of calomel (hartal) poisoning in a week.
• The poison spreading from the bite of a snake can be rendered inactive by administering Tulsi leaf juice to the victim, dropping a little juice into the eyes and ears, and applying a paste obtained by crushing and grinding the roots of the plant at the location of the bite.
• Snake poison can be deactivated by administering every two hours a mixture obtained by crushing together 20 leaves of a Tulsi plant with ten black pepper seeds.
• If bitten by a snake, one should drink the juice obtained by crushing and grinding Tulsi, jatamansi, saffron, turmeric, red sandalwood, pure manashil, nakhi, tarnal patra, cinnamon and tagar with sufficient water. The juice should also be dropped into the nose and the eyes. This will destroy the poison, and the swelling caused by the poison will subside.
• Applying the paste obtained by grinding roots of a Tulsi plant with a woman`s breast milk to the eyes, and drops into the nostrils, will bring immediate relief to a person who has lost consciousness due to the bite of a snake.
• If the victim of snakebite is sinking, he should be given pills rolled from Tulsi, mulethi, powdered wood turmeric, kooth, turmeric and gopitta.
• If stung by a scorpion, rub the paste of Tulsi leaves and inflorescences over the sting. Crush a few leaves of Tulsi with cow`s urine and lemon juice, and apply the paste over the region of the sting like an embrocating. Apply Tulsi juice to which a little rock salt has been added. Chew some Tulsi leaves. Grind together 20 gms of Tulsi leaves and 15 black pepper seeds with water, and apply the paste on the sting.
• The pain caused by the sting of a wasp can be relieved by drinking Tulsi juice and applying it.The poison of a rat can also be destroyed by applying a paste rubbing a cow`s tooth with Tulsi juice, mixing manashil.
• The bite of a centipede should be treated by the application and internal administration of wine to which Tulsi, shankhini, mineral soda bicarb (saaji khar) and ashes obtained by burning the droppings of goats have been added.
• If your cot is infested with bed bugs, place a few twigs of the wild variety of Tulsi on the cot. The bugs will quickly run away. Mosquitoes, too, will not approach the cot.
• The poison in a mosquito sting is destroyed by the application of Tulsi juice.
• To counter the effects of the poison of a maniari a very poisonous reptile, drink ten gms of Tulsi juice or chew some Tulsi leaves. If the jaw is locked drop the juice into the nostrils and rubbed on the crown of the head, the palms and the soles of the feet.
Painful Joints
• The roots, leaves, inflorescences, twigs and seeds of a plant constitute what is collectively known as its `panchang` or its five parts. Take equal amounts of each, grind them and sieve. Ten gms of this mixture mixed with an equal amount of aged jaggery, and taken with goat`s milk every morning and evening will relieve pain in the joints.
• Repeated administration of five gms of a mixture of the juices of Shyama Tulsi, garlic and onions, and smearing the mixed juices all over the body is beneficial in tetanus as well as spasms due to other causes.
• A fine powder is prepared by grinding five gms of Shyama Tulsi leaves, three gms of meudi (sindhuar) leaves, five gms of bhangra, and three gms of the bark of varuna according to specified procedure. The powder is mixed with five gms of honey. This paste is a cure for all conditions due to excessive vata, such as pains, inflammations, etc.
• The use of a decoction of Tulsi leaves for bathing and for the fomentation of the joints is effective in the treatment of rheumatism.
• Pain in the joints can be relieved by applying a poultice of a paste of Tulsi leaves, castor leaves and saindhav (rock salt).
• Tulsi seed powder is a good remedy for muscular pain.
• Exposure to the smoke" generated by Drudrih Tulsi leaves dropped on glowing charcoal proves beneficial in all cases of abnormalities of blood due to vata, including rheumatism and oedema of the hands and feet.
• Fomentation with steam from the boiling decoction of the five parts (panchang) of the Van Tulsi plant is beneficial in all paralytic conditions such as paralysis of the torso, facial paralysis, paralysis.
Take 100 gms of each of the following ingredients, and grind them together in cow`s urine, Panchang of Tulsi, panchang of neem, panchang of kateli (a variety of the cotton plant), leaves of white sindhuar, leaves of amar vel and black makay (maize). Cook 125 gms of the paste in seasame oil over a low flame. When all the moisture is expelled, cool and strain the oil. Use this oil to massage the joints and other parts affected by rheumatism.
Respiratory Diseases
• If you have a dry cough or your voice has become hoarse due to a sore throat, grind equal amounts of Tulsi leaves, poppy seeds and jethi madh (yashti madhu) together and take the mixture with an equal quantity of sugar in warm water.
• Chest pains and coughs are relieved by drinking Tulsi juice with crystal sugar.
• Tea brewed with Tulsi leaves is a good remedy for fevers, colds and muscular pains.
• Licking a paste formed by mixing camphor and honey with Tulsi juice, without added water, will relieve congestion in the chest due to thickened phlegm.
• Crush seven Tulsi leaves and five black pepper seeds to a fine paste and roll into pills. Take one pill every morning, noon and evening with water. Coughs and colds will be eradicated completely within a week.
• Ingestion of five gms of Tulsi leaf juice mixed well with two powdered black pepper seeds and five gms of sugar will relieve stiffening of the chest muscles and will also cure chronic fever.
• Hiccups and asthma can also be cured by taking an extract of equal quantities of Tulsi leaves and inflorescences with aged jaggery.
• Smoking a bidi rolled from Tulsi leaves cures a freshly contracted cold.
• Licking ten gms of the juice of Barbari Tulsi leaves mixed with jaggery, powdered seeds of two cardamoms and some honey arrests the excessive secretion of phlegm.
• For relief in an attack of asthma, prepare a decoction by boiling five gms of Tulsi inflorescences and ten gms of dry ginger in water, allow it to cool, mix some honey with it, and drink it. Take such a decoction twice or thrice as necessary.
• If there is pain in the ribs due to cold, apply a paste obtained by mixing five gms of powdered pusker seeds with five gms of Tulsi juice.
• If the cold has been caused by a drenching in the rain or excessive humidity in the air, drinking a decoction of Tulsi, dry ginger, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper three or four times in a day will effect a cure.
• Taking a paste obtained by crushing Tulsi leaves and four or five roasted cloves together will also prove beneficial in the treatment of coughs.
• If phlegm has been secreted in excessive quantities, drinking a decoction of five gms of Tulsi leaves, naagar, moth (musta) and dry ginger will rid the system of the excess phlegm.
• Coughs can be relieved by inhaling the vapours arising from Tulsi seeds being heated in a little ghee (clarified butter). Some warm milk must be taken after such inhalations.
• A paste formed by grinding together Tulsi seeds, onions and ginger and mixing with honey is beneficial in dry cough and infantile asthma. The paste is to be licked.
• Green Tulsi leaves grilled over an open fire taken with a little common salt are beneficial in coughs and pharyngitis.
Skin Problems
• If a wound is festering because of infestation with microorganisms, and blood is oozing out, wash the wound with Tulsi decoction which is just barely hot, and apply a paste of crushed Tulsi leaves.
• Dry Tulsi leaves, some alum, ground well powder can be applied on any fresh cuts or wounds, and will promote quick healing.
• If eruptions are caused by `sheetpitta` (urticaria), apply Tulsi juice over the affected areas. This should be followed by daily application of crushed Tulsi leaves mixed with black clay.
• Boils in the armpits can heal, on applying a warm poultice of Tulsi leaves, mustard seeds, jaggery and googal (mukul) ground together.
• To cure blisters, boils, furuncles, eruptions, etc take 50 gms of lemon juice in a copper vessel. Add 50 gms of Tulsi juice, and the same quantity of the juice of black kasondra. Keep the vessel in sunlight. The juices will begin to lose water by evaporation. Expose the vessel to sunlight daily till all the water is lost and a dry black residue is left. Application also improves the appearance and beautifies the face.
• White spots on the face or any other area of the skin can be cured by applying the clay adhering to the roots of a Tulsi plant on the affected parts.
• Loss or graying hair at an early age can be cured by rubbing the skin of the head vigorously with Tulsi leaves and powdered any/as (Indian gooseberry fruits). Done every day, the roots of the hair become strong and hair begins to grow and becomes black, smooth and soft.
• Itching can be soothed by taking Tulsi juice with powdered majuphal, and applying a mixture of Tulsi and lemon juice.
• Rubbing clay adhering to Tulsi roots all over the body, and taking a bath after a short time cures all skin diseases.
• The pain in the initial stages of measles, chickenpox and smallpox is alleviated by drinking the extract of Van Tulsi.
• Poison blisters washed with hot extract of Tulsi leaves.
• Organisms infesting wounds are destroyed by sprinkling finely powdered dry Tulsi
• Itching and eczema can be cured by applying a paste obtained by grinding the leaves of a Tulsi plant in lemon juice.
• The discomfort by prickly heat can be relieved by eating Tulsi seeds with five gms of anvla (Indian gooseberry) jam.
Diseases of the digestive system
• Vomiting caused by excess bile subsides by drinking a mix of ten gms of Tulsi juice, ten gms of ginger juice and 20 gms of lemon juice sweetened with powedered sugar.
• Vomiting due to vata, pitta and kapha can be cured by drinking Tulsi juice to which powdered cardamom seeds have been added.
• Vomiting and lack of appetite are cured by taking a mixture of powdered peepar (piper longum) and powdered Tulsi seeds with honey.
• Vomiting of all types subsides on taking Tulsi juice with honey.
• To cure vomiting caused by fever drink a mixture of 10 gms of Tulsi juice and 25 gms of water sweetened with 10 gms of sugar.
• Drinking 25 gms of mixed juice of Tulsi leaves, leaves of the drumstick tree with a little saindhav salt stimulate digestion and induce regular bowel motion.
• Take ten gms of each dried Tulsi leaves, seeds of large cardamoms, cumin seeds, dry ginger, cinnamon, ajwan seeds, black salt and roasted asafoetida. Powder and sieve it. This powder with water stimulates digestion.
• Ingestion of Tulsi leaves and powdered black pepper cures dyspepsia.
• Licking equal quantities of powdered Tulsi seeds and powdered peepar (piper longum) with honey will stimulate appetite.
• Take equal quantities of the roots of the Tulsi plant and the stones of the fruits of the neem tree. Grind these together and prepare pea-sized pills out of the resulting paste. Two of these pills taken with honey every morning and evening will cure piles. The pills can be taken with buttermilk instead of honey.
• For piles sores drinking the juice of Tulsi leaves and the roots of kakjangha (a run), and apply the juice on the sores.
• If there is a burning sensation in the chest, the stomach or the calves, application of a paste of Tulsi leaves mixed with a paste obtained by a piece of deodar wood gives relief.
• Drinking the above decoction after adding threee gms of powdered nutmeg brings rapid relief even in difficult cases of irregularity in bowel motions.
• Take equal quantities of Tulsi leaves, mandar roots and black pepper. Grind these ingredients together and roll into pills. These pills constitute an effective remedy for cholera.
• Another treatment for dysentery is administration of dried Tulsi leaves with cumin seeds and black, salt in curds, or mattha.
• For diarrhoea with blood drink a mixture of soaked ten gms of Tulsi seeds in 50 gms of water overnight. Grind them, strain and drink with milk or water.
• For watery stools a mix of Tulsi leaves and the bark of the indrajav plant works wonders.
• Diarrhoea due to inefficient digestion is cured by an extract of Tulsi leaves, with saunf (fenel seeds) powder, fried in ghee and sugar.
• Spoonful of Tulsi juice mixed with a spoonful turmeric juice three times a day is beneficial in any disorder of the digestive system.
• If suffering from recurring stomach ulcers drink a decoction of Tulsi leaves and the leafy part of the soya (soya, dill) plant, and little saindhav salt.
• Enlargement of the spleen can be cured by taking five gms of mixed Tulsi roots, salammoniac, borax (the dehydrated form), and javakhar (yavakshar).
• Drinking a warm mixture of Tulsi and ginger juice cures stomachache.
• Chewing Tulsi leaves with a little sugar is a good remedy for colic.
• Five gms of powdered Tulsi leaves, five gms of roasted cumin seeds, five gms of bili (bilwa) powder and two gms of black salt added to 50 gms of curds, and mixed well. This mixture is beneficial in dysentery, colic, grips and inefficient digestion.
• Boil ten gms of Tulsi leaves in 100 gms of water, till only half the water is left, and strain the extract. Drinking this extract will arrest the enlargement of the liver, and cure allied disorders.
• Applying a paste of ground Tulsi leaves will cure inflammations.
• Drinking an extract of Tulsi seeds and sona mukhi leaves cures obstruction in the urinary tract and the rectum.
• To cure tumours apply a paste of ground Tulsi seeds, white sarasao (sara son), radish seeds, drumstick seeds, barley `and the roots of kaner.
• Hiccups can be cured by taking a teaspoonful of Tulsi juice and half a spoonful of honey in the morning and evening.
• Prepare an extract of Tulsi leaves and its inflorescences. Mix with jaggery and take it regularly to cure hiccups.
Diseases of the mouth, teeth, eves, ears, nose and throat
• Toothache is alleviated by rubbing the teeth with the juice of Tulsi leaves mixed with black pepper powder and salt.
• Placing a pill made from the paste of Tulsi leaves under an aching tooth will also alleviate the pain.
• Night blindness can be cured by two drops of Shyam Tulsi leaves in the eyes every day for fourteen days.
• To alleviate pain the eyes grind five gms each of Tulsi seeds, raswanti, mango ginger and two gms of opium with the pulp of kunvarpatha.
• Tulsi juice into the eyes relieves soreness of the eyes.
• For inflammation and itching in the eyes apply a decoction of Tulsi leaves and powdered alum, warm it and use cotton dipped in it to foment the eyelids.
• For eyes mix Tulsi, turmeric, white sarasao (sarason), bhangaro (bhringraj) and indigo. Grind to a paste.
• Mix Tulsi juice with seasame oil and boil the mixture. A few drops of this oil instilled into the ears while still bearably hot will cure all disorders of the ears.
• Pain in the external ear is alleviated to a considerable extent by massaging with Tulsi leaf juice.
• Instillation of a mixture of equal amounts of the juices of Shyam Tulsi leaves and Bhringraj is an effective treatment for infection of the internal ear and consequent suppuration.
• Earache, inflammation of the inner ear and deafness can be cured by instilling drops of the mixed juice of green Tulsi inflorescences and Tulsi leaves.
• For bad odour in the nasal passage inhale the vapours of seasame oil in which Tulsi, dry ginger, pepper, peepar (piper longum), vachh, drumstick, the smaller variety of danti, chitraphala and saindhav salt have been cooked.
• For pain in the nasal passages apply a powder mixture of Tulsi leaves and kernels of the stones of the jujube (ber) fruit.
• Staunch a nosebleed by inhaling the vapours off Tulsi inflorescences.
• For soar throat lick juice of Tulsi leaves mixed with honey
Remedies for Miscellaneous Diseases
• To improve memory swallow five leaves of Tulsi or crush eight leaves, four black pepper seeds, two almonds and a little honey.
• To purify polluted water drop a few fresh green Tulsi leaves in it.
• Treat burns by smearing the affected part with coconut oil boiled with Tulsi juice. This will reduce pain and hasten the healing.
• Persistent thirst can be quenched by drinking the sherbet of tulsi leaves, sugar and lemon juice.
• To strengthen the heart daily ingest five leaves of Tulsi, three black pepper seeds and three almonds. Take it during winter season only.
• Boil saindhav salt with Tulsi juice, two drops will revive a fainted person.
• Regular use of Tulsi effects rapidily increase in the number of the red blood corpuscles.
• Cut the dried twigs of Tulsi into beads of the size of large pearls. String together the beads. Wearing protects one from infectious diseases.
• Swallowing five leaves of Tulsi every morning also protects one from infectious diseases.
• Tulsi leaf juice with sugar acts as a preventive from sunstroke
• For fatigue drink an extract of Ram Tulsi leaves with cow`s milk and sugar
Tulsi or basil is a herbal remedy for a lot of common ailments.
• The juice of tulsi leaves can be used to bring down fever. Extract of tulsi leaves in fresh water should be given every 2 to 3 hours. In between one can keep giving sips of cold water. In children, it is every effective in bringing down the temperature.
• Tulsi is an important constituent of many Ayurvedic cough syrups and expectorants. It helps to mobilize mucus in bronchitis and asthma. Chewing tulsi leaves relieves cold and flu.
• For earache a few drops of tulsi extract, if instilled, relieves the symptoms promptly.
• The juice of fresh leaves, flower tops and slender roots is a very god antidote for snake and scorpion bite.
• Its oil is rich in vitamin C, carotene, calcium and phosphorus. Besides, it has antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties.
• Ayurvedic tulsi preparations have significantly reduced the symptoms of viral hepatitis.
• In diabetics it helps in lowering the blood sugar level.
• Its anti-spasmodic property can be utilized to relieve abdominal colics. The extracts are also helpful in digestive disorders.
• Tulsi leaves have properties similar to the currently available anti-TB drugs like Streptomycin and Isoniazide.
• Oil of tulsi has been used as a potent anti-malarial drug. It also has mosquito repellent properties.
• It raises the human body immunity by increasing the antibody production.
• Experimental studies on animals have shown anti-stress activity with tulsi extract.
• Tulsi has anti-fertility effect by reducing the estrogen hormone levels in females and decreasing the sperm count in men.
• It is also used to treat ringworm of the skin.
(Taken from another sources)
Dr. Anuj Kumar
