Ocimum basilicum L. (Sweet Basil) is a medicinal herb used in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine to treat a variety of disease conditions including hypertension, and has well established antihypertensive effects among renovascular hypertensive rats. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antihypertensive effects of O. basilicum as adjunct in the management of stage 1 and 2 hypertensive patients. A double blind-randomized controlled trial was performed, with participants (n=24) randomized into a control and treatment group. Participants randomized into the control group (n=12) were given their prescribed antihypertensive medication plus placebo while those in the treatment group (n=12) were given their antihypertensive medication plus Ocimum basilicum L. capsules containing 128 mg of dried, powderized leaves once a day. Participants’ blood pressure (BP) was measured at baseline, 1 week, and 2 weeks of drug administration and the Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) calculated. Results showed that systolic and diastolic BP in the treatment group measured from baseline, one and two weeks of drug administration are significantly different, whereas the control group had insignificant findings. Furthermore, the MAP in the control group (105.25±9.52 mm/Hg, 104.08±8.45 mm/Hg and 104.47±8.85 mmHg) were comparable while that in the treatment group (106.47±6.65 mm/Hg,100.89±9.99 mm/Hg, and 97.14±9.96 mm/Hg) showed significant lowering (p=<0.0001) over time by Repeated Measures-Anova with Bonferroni’s post-hoc test. The significant findings in this study support the antihypertensive action of Ocimum basilicum L. among humans which warrant further exploration.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.427494
