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Ayurvedic powders are widely used as therapeutic agents but most of them have unpleasant taste and large doses. One of the possible approach to overcome these drawbacks is to represent them in unit dosage form i.e. tablet dosage form. The purpose of this study is to elucidate and quantify the compressibility and compactibility of herbal granules prepared by using hydrogel isolated from whole seeds of Ocimum basilicum as a novel binder. The compressibility is the ability of the powder to deform under pressure and the compactibility is the ability of a powder to form coherent compacts. To test the functionality of novel excipients, Sonnergaard proved a simple linear model to confirm compactability, which is an uncomplicated tool for quantification. The tablets were compressed at increasing compression pressures and were evaluated for various mechanical properties. The linear relationship between specific crushing strength and compression pressure revealed the compactibility of the herbal granules and the linear relationship between porosity and logarithm of compression pressure revealed the compressible nature of the herbal granules according to the model developed by Sonnergaard. Thus the hydrogel isolated from whole seeds of Ocimum basillicum had potential as a granulating and binding agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]