Lemon basil, popularly called “curry plant” is a herb with a sweet citrus fragrance. In Nigeria, it is popularly used in cooking stew. It has a lot of health benefits because of the minerals (magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, calcium,) and vitamins (rich in vit A and K) it contains. It also contains the compounds limonene and citral, which have some anti-inflammatory properties (i.e. ability to reduce redness, swelling, and pain in the body). Below is a guide, based on my experience, on how you can grow and make money with lemon basil. You can make lots of money from this during the dry season when tomatoes are cheap. But once tomatoes get scarce, demand falls because it is mainly used in stew. Because of this, it is not good to grow one type of vegetable. I grow green amaranth, scent leaf, fluted pumpkin (ugu) leaves in addition to curry.
