I first encountered Perilla eating at Japanese sushi restaurants.  The green leaf of "Shiso" is commonly used as a garnish for sashimi.  Visiting Japan, I was told that the leaves help prevent seafood poisoning.  Exploring further, I was surprised how often the plant is used. The leaves can also be purple, these are used to make the pickled ginger that is placed on the sushi tray.  It is also used as a preservative in soy sauce.  On another trip to Japan, I found that the green leaf is also frequently used in tempura, a Portuguese-inspired Japanese dish.

Its taste is unique - in a good way.  Its spicy, not hot, and very aromatic.  I asked a Japanese friend to obtain some seeds for me last spring.  Another Japanese friend purchased a plant at a local Japanese market.  Both grew well in containers.  Both plants flowered and produced a lot of seeds.  The seed pods look like basil seed pods - downward facing bells, with seeds inside.  The seed stalk becomes brittle and the seeds rattle around in the pod when shaken - apparently the source of one of its common english names - "rattlesnake weed."  I have heard rattlesnakes before, and would not confuse the two.  The seeds apparently can only be stored for a year.

Perrila is native to Asia, but is now a weed in the southeastern United States.  It was brought to this country by Japanese and Korean immigrants, many sources report in the 1800's.  It was imported as a seed oil into the United States before World war II and used as an ordamental flower - it purportadley attracts butterflies.  In Asia it is commonly used in Japaese, Korean and Vietnamese food.

It is also reported to have a wide variety of medicinal qualities, aside from the antidote to seafood poisoning mentioned before.  The list includes malaria, cancer, influenza, and restless fetus.  It also is reported to help relieve coughs,constipation, hiccups,colds, stuffy nose, snake bites and "incorrect energy balance."

Of concern is that is also claimed to help lung aliments including asthma.  However, it is known to be toxic to horses and cattle, but not pigs or dogs-it attacks their respiratory system.

Also of concern is that in Japan, 20 to 50% of long-term workers in the "perilla industry "developed dermatitis on their hands.

Apparently when not used as a medicine the oil is used for a variety of industrial purposes including linoleum, paint, lacquers and ink - all of which are a bit disturbing for me since I eat the stuff. A version of the plant with red leaves is used a dye - this gives rise to another common english name, "beefsteak plant," as it apparently is the color of raw beef.  My plants are green.

With so many uses one can expect that laboratory rats have been exposed to the stuff, and they have One great source of information on Perilla reports that it is "...extremely effective as a laxative without causing diarrhea in laboratory mice" and that "laboratory rats had better learning ability when fed a perilla seed oil diet than with a safflower oil diet."

The same source states that"[T]he use of perilla oil as a source of rosefuran is a novel and exciting idea."  I do not know what "rosefuran" is, but the source also reports:  "Perilla alcohol, prepared from perilla aldehyde, is used in fragrances, and has legal food status in the United States and Europe."  That maybe worth further research...

Its easy to grow, and unusual to a lot of people.  The cooks I have given small plants to have been excited to try something new.