Purple Opal Organic

'Purple Opal' is the name several US catalogs use for the standard purple sweet basil of the Opal line. San Diego Seed Company sells it under exactly that name as an organic, open-pollinated variety, while High Mowing lists the same type as 'Purple Dark Opal'. The underlying cultivar is 'Dark Opal', bred by John Scarchuk and Joseph Lent at the University of Connecticut in the 1950s and an All-America Selections winner in 1962, the release that made purple basil a garden staple. Its colour comes from anthocyanins, chiefly cyanidin- and peonidin-based compounds at roughly 18 mg per 100 g of fresh leaf, a higher concentration than in the small-leaved purple basils, enough that it has been examined as a natural red pigment source for food. Gardeners grow it as much for colour contrast in beds, containers and salads as for cooking, and its purple flowers are edible too.