Culinary Thai cuisine The leaves of holy basil, known as
kaphrao in the
Thai language (), are commonly used in
Thai cuisine for certain stir-fries and curries such as
phat kaphrao () — a stir-fry of Thai holy basil with meats, seafood or, as in
khao phat kraphao, with rice. Two different types of holy basil are used in Thailand, a "red" variant which tends to be more pungent, and a "white" version for seafood dishes.
Kaphrao should not be confused with
horapha (), which is normally known as
Thai basil, or with
Thai lemon basil (
maenglak; ).
Minangkabau cuisine Holy basil (in
Minangkabau language and
Indonesian language are known as ''
) is also widely used for Minangkabau dishes, particularly for its gulai variety, which involves fish as the primary source of protein. These Minangkabau fish gulais that commonly use holy basil such as gulai ikan mas
(carp gulai), gulai ikan kakap
(red snapper gulai), gulai kepala ikan kakap'' (red snapper's head gulai),
samba ikan gadang or
pangek (braised fish gulai),
Nematicidal The essential oil may have
nematicidal properties against
Tylenchulus semipenetrans,
Meloidogyne javanica,
Anguina tritici, and
Heterodera cajani. ==In Hinduism==