Perilla frutescens

Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt. (syn. Perilla nankinensis (Lour.) Decne., etc.) is a perennial plant  in the mint family, Lamiaceae. This species encompasses two distinct varieties  of a traditional crop from East Asia:

1. ) P. frutescens var. crispa is the aromatic leafy herb called by its Korean name jasoyup, 자소엽, and its Japanese name shiso, which in turn is a loan word from . The plant occurs in red (purple-leaved) or green-leaved forms. It also has a less fashionable translated name "beefsteak plant", but starting around the 1980s, with the rise of popularity of Japanese cuisine, it has become increasingly more chic for the mass media to refer to it as shiso
2. ) P. frutescens var. frutescens, the oilseed crop, is the source of perilla oil. This variety is used as an ingredient in Korean cuisine, both "wild sesame (seeds)'" (deulggae), and "sesame leaves" (Ggaennip), which are green with a purplish coloration underside. It is known in Japan as egoma. (