Variation of caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, luteolin and apigenin contents in perilla germplasm.

Perilla frutescens, which belonging to the Labiatae family, is widely cultivated oil crop and have been used traditional herbal medicine in East Asia such as Korea, China, and Japan. Especially, the leaves and the seeds of this species are important in Korean traditional cooking, as one of the popular garnish and food colorants. Numerous studies have revealed that the beneficial health effects of perilla are due to its several phytochemicals contents, such as rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid, luteolin, and apigenin. For this reason, increasing the content of phytochemicals in perilla hasbecome a major breeding objective. The genetic diversity of the rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid, luteolin, and apigenin content in perilla seed is poorly documented. We analyzed the rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid, luteolin, and apigenin content of 203 accessions of perilla germplasm by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The rosmarinic acid and luteolin contents ofgermplasms were ranged from 15.7 μg/g to 2717.1 μg/g and from 1.6 μg/g to 582.4 μg/g respectively.