Shiso

crispa, also known by its Japanese name shiso, is a cultigen of Perilla frutescens, a herb in the mint family Lamiaceae.It is suggested that the native origins of the plant are mountainous regions of India and China,[14] although other sources point to Southeast Asia.[16] One of the early mentions comes from the Supplementary Records of Renowned Physicians (名醫別錄 Míng Yī Bié Lù), written around 500 AD,[17] where it is listed as su (蘇), and some of its uses are described.[23] It has broad ovate leaves with pointy ends and serrated margins, arranged oppositely with long leafstalks.[29] Ruffled red shiso was the first form examined by Western botanists, and Carl Peter Thunberg named it P. crispa (meaning "wavy" or "curly").The leaves turns bright red when steeped in umezu, the vinegary brine that results as a byproduct of pickling plums.[33] Red leaves are dried and pulverized into flakes, then mixed with salt to make a seasoning called yukari.In Japan, pasta is sometimes topped with dried or freshly chopped shiso leaves, which is often combined with raw tarako (pollock roe).[42] Red leaves are sometimes pickled in soy sauce or soybean paste as a jangajji, or deep-fried as bugak with a thin coat of rice-flour batter.[48] When consumed by cattle and horses, it causes pulmonary edema, leading to a condition sometimes called perilla mint toxicosis.[49] Other chemotypes include eschscholzia ketone, perillene, and the phenylpropanoids myristicin, dillapiole, elemicin, citral, and a type rich in rosefuran.[citation needed] Shiso contains only about 25.2–25.7% lipid,[50] but still contains a comparable 60% ratio of ALA.[51][52] Aromatic essential oils present are limonene,[45] caryophyllene,[45] and farnesene.[citation needed] Bactericidal and preservative effects of shiso, due to the presence of terpenes such as perilla alcohol, have been noted.[37] In temperate climates, the plant is self-sowing, but the seeds are not viable after long storage, and germination rates are low after a year.[53][56] The difference in percentage is an indicator that in Aichi, the leaves are 90% greenhouse produced, whereas nationwide the ratio is 60:40 in favor of indoors over open fields.[62] Another account places the start of green shiso production origin in the city of Toyohashi, the foremost ōba producer in the country.[58] It claims that the Toyohashi Greenhouse Horticultural Agricultural Cooperative[a] experimented with planting green shiso around 1955, and started merchandising the leaves as ōba around 1962.The word ōba was originally a trade name and was not listed in the popular dictionary Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten as "green shiso" until its 5th edition (1997).