Distribution and habitat: Found in Africa, South America and Asia.

Botany: It is a herb, woody at base, branchlets puberulous. 

• Leaves: elliptic-oblong, acute, base truncate or obtuse, subentire, glabrescent or sparsely pilose along nerves below; petioles 2 cm long.
• Flowers :  racemes, densely pubescent; bracts ovate, acute. Calyx 4 mm long, sericeous. Corolla 5 mm long, white. Staminal filaments glabrous. Nutlets ovoid-subtrigonous, 1.5 mm long.

Properties: Perfumery, cosmetic, febrifuge, antimalarial and beverages

Chemical constituents: Methyl chavicol, citral

Uses: It give irritations of throat, ear ache and ringworm infections

Agro-technology 

Soil and Climate: Crops well under tropical climate up to an altitude of 1800 m. It can be cultivated in well drained loamy and sandy soil.

Propagation: By seeds

Irrigation: Irrigation is required once a week when it is raised as a summer crop.

Manures and fertilizers: At planting, 10-15 tonnes of compost or FYM are to be applied. A medium fertilizer dose of 40:40:40 kg/ha of N, P2O5 and K2O is recommended.

Pests and diseases: Corynespora cassicola causes leaf spot diseases. Elsinoe arxii sp. nov causes scab diseases. Leaf blight is caused by Alternaria alternate

Harvesting: Harvested when plant is full bloom and lower leaves start turning yellowish. For high quality oil only flowering tops are harvested.

Processing: Whole plant is extracted by hydro distillation or steam distillation.  Distillation is carried out for 1-1.5 hours.