Abstract
The genus Ocimum belonging to the family Lamiaceae, collectively known as basil, has long been acclaimed for the genetic diversity of the species within the genus. Ocimum comprises at least 65 species but more than 150 species, according to some sources, of herbs and shrubs from the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. The main center of diversity appears to be Africa. Basil, one of the most popular herbs grown in the world, is native to Asia and can be observed growing wild in tropical and subtropical regions. In the present chapter, an effort has been made to list all the available genomic resources of the Ocimum species worldwide and to describe the medicinal potentialities, uses, and essential oil components of some important ones.
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Shah, S., Rastogi, S., Shasany, A.K. (2018). Genomic Resources of Ocimum. In: Shasany, A., Kole, C. (eds) The Ocimum Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97430-9_8
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