SMELLBOOK REFERENCE · SB-0033
Basil
Permanent ID: smellbook: · updated 2026-10-06, revision 3
Character EDITORIAL
Basil smells fresh, green and aromatic, with a peppery edge and a slightly sweet, clove-like or anise-like note underneath.
Words: green, herbal, aromatic, fresh. Families: Fresh and clean.
States: fresh (EDITORIAL). A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
Met in: Garden, Kitchen, Market.
Evidence
Scientific evidence
- Volatiles linked to basil's clove-like and piquant smell (CLM-BASIL-001). Pengmeng Du, Honglun Yuan, Yayu Chen, Haihong Zhou, Youjin Zhang, Menglan Huang, Yiding Jiangfang, Rongxiu Su, Qiyu Chen, Jun Lai, Lingliang Guan, Yuanhao Ding, Haiyan Hu & Jie Luo, Identification of Key Aromatic Compounds in Basil (Ocimum L.) Using Sensory Evaluation, Metabolomics and Volatilomics Analysis, Metabolites, 2023.
Molecules named in these claims: eugenol, germacrene D, β-pinene, γ-cadinene. A molecule listed here is named in a VERIFIED claim about this smell. It is not presented as the cause of the smell; each claim says what its source supports.
Cite
SmellBook. (2026). Basil (revision 3, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:basil. https://smellbook.com/smells/basil
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