Article,

Unravelling the genome of Holy basil: an “incomparable” “elixir of life” of traditional Indian medicine

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BMC Genomics, 16 (1): 413+ (May 28, 2015)
DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-1640-z

Abstract

Ocimum sanctum L. (O. tenuiflorum) family-Lamiaceae is an important component of Indian tradition of medicine as well as culture around the world, and hence is known as ” Holy basil” in India. This plant is mentioned in the ancient texts of Ayurveda as an ” elixir of life” (life saving) herb and worshipped for over 3000 years due to its healing properties. Although used in various ailments, validation of molecules for differential activities is yet to be fully analyzed, as about 80 \% of the patents on this plant are on extracts or the plant parts, and mainly focussed on essential oil components. With a view to understand the full metabolic potential of this plant whole nuclear and chloroplast genomes were sequenced for the first time combining the sequence data from 4 libraries and three NGS platforms.

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