Sun scalled. The leaves will bleach out to a pale tan color and die, if the plants get intense sun in their early development. Not all is lost however as they will recover soon after they get the full sun for a few weeks and overcome outdoor exposure. Same happens here with several other plants, so I put all mine to be planted, into a small greenhouse to 'harden off' a few weeks prior to planting outdoors.

As with human babies, plant babies need to be protected from the harsh elements at first. Yes, it's sunburn. When mature your plants will take as much sun as they can get - but meantime, put another larger plant nearby to protect them from the hottest sun of the day, or the wind which can be just as damaging to baby plants.

The leaves are probably safe to eat - but would you want to??

I believe tasting the leaves would be the best test, not your eyes.

I had this exact issue with the basil seedlings I started indoors -- under a pair of conventional 40w fluorescent shop lights... Wow... Basil is really, really delicate!

Under plant bulb shop lights I get them to a foot tall before they are planted out in the garden. I take all my plants out to my small greenhouse by third week of May to get them used to outdoor sun and weather.

Mine hardened off pretty well, after growing for a few weeks from seed under some 4' fluorescent lights.

Yea....what ksrogers said.

ksrogers: How are you doing these days?

Peace - Steve

Hanging in there. Still have breating problems and lots of mucus build up. At least I have gotten rid of the oxygen tanks. Too expensive to keep. My crazy fig tree is still in my garage and now has a bunch of figs on it already. Its barely leafed out and only gets a little light through the garage door windows. To soon to put outdoors