“Basil, with marjoram, mint, sage, savory, and thyme have long been used since ancient time to flavor foods. Dioscorides even added that a little basil wine was good for the eyes. Basil rivals oregano as a pizza herb and is, of course, indispensable to pesto. But it contains estragole, closely related to safrole.”

Yes, No, Maybe.

YES / Basil oil stops the growth of at least several cancers.

NO / Basil oil is mostly composed of estragole, a weak carcinogen and genotoxin.

Many experts recommend minimizing estragole exposure to infants, children, and pregnant and lactating women.

According to the Botanical Safety Handbook (edited by Michael McGuffin, Christopher Hobbs, Roy Upton, & Alicia Goldberg), 1997 …

“Estrogole is a procarcinogen, becoming carcinogenic following metabolic activation. Animal experiments provide evidence that estragole has weak carcinogenic effects in the liver.”

MAYBE / The DOSE and the TIMING (circadian and seasonal) play their respective roles.

It takes large amounts of estragole to cause cancer or genetic damage.

Estragole is also found in tarragon oil, fennel oil, anise oil, pine oil, turpentine, etc.

It’s used as a flavoring in baked goods, meat products, gravies, alcoholic beverages, junk foods, etc.