Perilla Herb Oil

#### Perilla Oil (from Herb). An oil which attracted science about a generation ago, is the essential oil steam distilled from the leaves and flowering tops of a **Perilla **species. It was then claimed that **Perilla Nankinense**** **was the parent plant, but it seems that the species which is widely cultivated for distillation and also grows wild in Japan (in the Katami region on Hokkaido island) and on the Fareastern mainland, is a variety of **Perilla**** ****Frutescens**** **(according to private communication to the author). Various species are used as culinary herbs in the Oriental household, others yield from their seed a vegetable fatty oil by expression. The expressed **Perilla Seed Oil **is commercially available, and occasionally confuses the customer who orders perilla oil, and soon receives a fatty, drying, nonvolatile liquid that smells of cod liver oil or rancid linseed oil. The essential oil of **Perilla**** ****Frutescens,**** ***varietas** **crispa,** **forma** **viride** *is known in Japan as **Ao-Shiso**. It should be called perilla herb oil commercially in order to avoid confusion. The oil is a yellowish liquid of very strong and diffusive, fatty-oily-aromatic odor (in fact, with a touch of cod liver oil note!). The odor is so peculiar that it can hardly be compared to any other essential oil except those of similar chemical composition. The author disagrees with statements that the odor of perilla herb oil should be reminiscent of that of cumin oil, but this, of course, is a matter of opinion, subject to endless discussion. However, the principal note in perilla herb oil is actually often encountered in the dryout notes of other essential oils as a faint, but characteristic note. The note is due to an aldehyde, **Dihydro Cuminic Aldehyde**, also called **Perilla Aldehyde**. This aldehyde has been found in another fareastern plant, the Philippine orchid **Sulpitia Orsuami**, the essential oil of which contains about 67% dextro-dihydro cuminic aldehyde and 30% d-Iimonene. From the wood and roots of a Madagascan tree, **Hernandia Peltata**, comes an essential oil known as **Hazamalanga Oil **which contains from 60 to 90% of this aldehyde. The particular odor of dihydrocuminic aldehyde is the main reason for the perfumer's interest **in**** ****Perilla Herb**** ****Oil.**** **The oil can be used in the "construction" of artificial essential oils, e.g. bergamot oil, spearmint oil, etc. and the oil gives highly interesting effects in jasmin, orange flower, ylang-ylang and other floral bases. The tea-like dryout after the oily- fatty topnote is extremely suitable and natural for these compositions. Only minute traces of perilla herb oil are necessary for such effects. The flavor of **Perilla**** ****Herb**** ****Oil**** **is equally strong, warm-spicy, oily, and yet slightly burning. The author can see no immediate use for this oil as such in flavor compositions. The main constituent, laevo-**Perilla Aldehyde**, is present in the oil at the rate of about 50%. The anti-aldoxim of this aldehyde was known in the 1920's under the name of **Peryllartine**, a sweetening agent which is 2000 times sweeter than cane sugar. However, this sweetening agent has had only scientific interest outside Japan so far (literature: C. F. Walton: International Critical Tables, vol. 1, New York 1926). The annual production of **Perilla**** ****Herb**** ****Oil**** **is at present (1958/59) about 5 to 7 metric tons, all of which is produced in Japan.