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Alissa Krajewski
We have a lot of Perilla or Beefsteak Mint growing on our land. It smells great. I’d like to try using it but the sources I’m finding for info on it seem like they’ve just been rinsed and repeated over and over. I would love to hear if anyone has experience using it. Thanks guys!
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Rebecca
Hi!
I am a novice and only have my own personal experience to offer, so please take it with a grain of salt!
I started growing Perilla Frutescens (the Korean sub-type so far, hopefully I will explore true Japanese Shiso in the next growing season) as a simple kitchen herb until I recognized how calm I felt after having a tall glass of lemonaid infused with the herb. I, like many, suffer from general anxiety and the stress that follows it typically is what brings my immune system down, so I started following the trail the best I could.
After checking multiple online articles and the (admittedly older) books on herbs I had at my disposal, it seemed to confirm this as well as suggest a host of other effects that I havn’t been able to cross reference as of yet.
All I know for sure, is it works beautifully as an infused honey and the tincture is by far the most effective herb I have found to battle general anxiety and stress, at least for my own body chemistry!
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
Rebecca.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by
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Joelle
Are you all speaking of the Perilla that grows wildly often in shady areas? It has wide, textured leaves that are green with sometimes purplish undersides? And the puts up a seed stalk similar to basil? Just trying to figure out if what we call perilla is the same stuff. I’ve been told it is the 1# killer of livestock in our county but that for humans it is edible and nutritious. I’ve even heard that the seeds are very similar to chia seeds.
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Tasha Schlittenhart
Did you dry it before you made it into a tea, or use fresh?
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That point about being poisonous to livestock does ring a bell. Are the leaves large, heart shaped with toothed edges? Sometimes kinda frilly? The smell is also a mashup of basil, mint, and either cinnamon or anise depending on the type and who you ask.
The good news from what I have seen out of my own garden is that, despite perilla being a cousin of mint, it only invades by seed. By pulling the young volunteer plants as they show up in mid spring, there shouldn’t be worry of it regrowing. It will, however, happily self-sow anywhere and everywhere it won’t scorch to death, so the ounce of early weeding keeps it in check.
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Yes, that description fits. It is interesting that other people are noticing that plant. I’ve long wondered how to harvest and use the seeds after hearing that are similar to chia seeds.
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For what it’s worth, I just recently found a “book” of summarized scientific articles centered around Perilla and its actions on the body located on amazon. Trouble is, it’s at a somewhat hefty price for info on only one herb, and the info is geared more towards mass production rather than herbalism. I splurged on it and so far, it’s still a great wealth of info to cross reference with all of the sourced articles!
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Tonya Gabbert
Recently we have learned Perilla grows in our pastures and is a concern for the cattle. I am glad to hear that it is actually beneficial in certain applications.
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Perilla is toxic to livestock, specifically their respiratory systems. It grows all over our property, but our goats and sheep leave it alone. We’ve been trying to get rid of it, but once it goes to seed, it’s just about impossible to prevent it from coming back.
It is eaten as a vegetable in Asian cuisine. We haven’t cooked it yet, but plan to. I didn’t know it was anxiolytic and am excited to use it that way this year!
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Dawn
Hello All, This is an interesting topic as I have never heard of Perilla. When I googled it, the NIH study came up entitled ” The Role and Mechanism of Perilla frutescens in Cancer Treatment” if you want to dig further into this information. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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I took a quick look at google scholar on the herb and it seems to have a LOT of potential benefits with positive preliminary test results. I have read from the few books I own that mention Perilla, tend to link the medicinal value with the all purple “crispa” variety, but the Korean variety I have seems to work just fine. I’m looking forward to trying to grow the “stronger” variety this year to see if there really is a difference.
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