: Elemental Composition and Physiological Profiling of Indian Tulsi Varieties: Insights from XRF, Chemical and Leaf Chamber Analysis

Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum L.), a revered courtyard plant in India, is renowned for its antioxidant, antimicrobial, and medicinal properties. Tulsi, widely used in Ayurveda, is valued for its culinary, digestive, and restorative benefits, attributed to its diverse bioactive compounds such as eugenol, euginal in leaf volatile oil extract, fatty acid and sitosterol in seed volatile oil, sugars in seed gum and anthocyans in green leaves. Despite its extensive use, clinical practice data on dosage, constituents, and duration remain scarce. The variability in biologically active constituents among Tulsi strains, plants, harvesting methods, and processing conditions poses challenges for standardization. This attempt has been made to fill these knowledge gaps by investigating the elemental composition using Xray fluorescence (XRF), chemical analysis, and physiological profiling such as gas exchange parameters including rate of respiration, CO2 fixation and O2 evolution by leaf chamber analysis, of different varieties of Indian Tulsi.