Get It Now: Dark Opal Basil

Looks like velvet but hits the palate like spice, clove, and anise.

The farm is covered in a deep purple, almost black hue with shimmering green veins. Dark Opal Basil, is the overlap of beauty and function, what Ayurveda calls rasa (taste) and guna (quality) dancing together.

This isn’t your garnish-only basil. Dark Opal Basil is loaded with compounds tied to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. The plant is known to fight oxidative stress, help balance the gut, and may even hold anticancer potential.

Quick Facts:

• Dark Opal basil is a purple‐leafed cultivar of sweet basil, bred in the U.S. in the 1950s.

• The purple coloration comes from anthocyanins (especially cyanidin‐based and peonidin‐based compounds).

• Anthocyanins a responsible for the vibrant colors in fruits, vegetables, and flowers and provide antioxidant protection.

• It has aromatic compounds similar to other sweet basil (eugenol, etc.) and mild spicy / clove / licorice / anise / earthy tones.

• Home storage is challenging. Here is an article on the best ways to keep your basil fresh.

Culinary Uses:

• Fresh garnish

• Pesto

• Herbal vinegar

• Cocktail ingredient

• Flavored oils

• Pickling

• Herbal tea 

Medicinal & Wellness Uses

• Antioxidant

• Digestive Aid

• Stress relief

• Anti-inflammatory

• Immune support

• Wound wash

Beauty & Skincare Uses

• Face steam

• Toner infusion

• Hair rinse

• Aromatherapy

• Body Salve

• Acne + Bug Bites

Moodboard and Aesthetic Takeaways

Playlist

The playlist pairs jazz with downtempo beats, cosmic soul with a few psychedelic turns—music that feels like tasting basil tea at dusk.

Additional Reading:

• Antioxidant and Anticancer Activities of Ocimum basilicum cv. Dark Opal (Mohammadi et al.) – shows extracts & essential oils of Dark Opal having antioxidant activity and inhibiting proliferation in MCF-7 cells. phcogcommn.org

• In Vitro and In Vivo Anticancer Activity of Basil (Ocimum spp.) (Perna et al., 2022) – broader review of basil species, many showing anticancer potential. PMC

• Basil Seeds as a Novel Food… – describes nutritional, medicinal, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antioxidant properties for basil seeds; while not always specifically Dark Opal, many basil uses are shared across cultivars. PMC