482 Handbook of herbs and spices
29.1 Introduction
Perilla (also known as wild coleus, Chinese basil, Perilla mint or purple mint) is a
widely used flavouring herb that belongs to the family Lamiaceae. The natural habitat
extends from Northeast India to China, occurring up to an altitude of 1200 m. The
major producing countries are China, Japan, Korea and India. (Axtell and Fairman,
1992). In South Asia, Perilla extends from Kashmir to Bhutan, and from Champaran
in India to Myanmar (Misra and Hussain, 1987). Perilla was introduced to Japan in
the 8–9th century where it is grown extensively now. Perilla is widely grown in
Korea, where there is also a strong research base for the improvement of the crop.
Currently Perilla occupies the largest area in Korea, about 50,000 ha. The Asian
immigrants introduced Perilla into the USA in the 1800s. The Japanese brought
Perilla seeds with them to cultivate, and the cultivation began mainly on the West
Coast. The plants spread to the Ozarks and the Appalachian mountains, where the
species become naturalized and spread widely. It is now widely grown in the USA as
an ornamental bedding plant.
Perilla is an annual short day plant. Two types occur: green leaved and purple
leaved varieties, and each of them has several cultivated forms. The green variety has
been described (Yu, 1997) as: P. frutescens (L.) Britt., P. frutescens var. acuta (Kudo)
forma viridis (Makino); P. frutescens var. crispa (Decne) forma viridis (Makino); P.
frutescens var. arguta (Benth.) Hand-Mazz; P. frutescens var. acuta f. albiflora; P.
frutescens var. stricta f. viridifolia.
The purple leaved variety has the following forms:
P. frutescens var. acuta (Kudo)
P. frutescens var. typica (Makino)
P. frutescens var. stricta
P. frutescens var. crispa
P. frutescens var. atropurpurea
P. frutescens var. crispa f. purpurea (Makino)
29 Perilla.........................................................................................................
P. N. Ravindran, Centre for Medicinal Plants Research, India and
M. Shylaja, Providence Women’s College, India