Comprehensive Nutritional Evaluation and Essential Oil Type Analysis of 14 Purple Perilla frutescens Lines

In order to screen Perilla resources suitable for both medicine and food, basic nutritional quality, main active components and mineral content were determined in 14 purple Perilla frutescens lines (No.C01~C14), which were collected from Guizhou, Hunan, Shanxi and Heilongjiang provinces. The nutritional quality of Perilla leaves was evaluated by factor analysis and systematic cluster analysis. In addition, the essential oil types of the Perilla lines were also analyzed. The results showed that the content of crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, soluble protein, total free amino acids and soluble sugar were 12.87~19.52, 2.07~4.19, 6.59~9.84 g/100 g, 0.99~2.49, 0.17~1.57 and 28.90~61.54 g/kg, respectively. The contents of flavonoids, total phenols and vitamin C were 13.28~24.35 g/kg, 59.26~99.18 mg/kg and 1.16~8.17 mg/100 g. The content of Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu was 13.96~27.86, 5.60~8.94, 4.63~19.74 and 0.52~2.61 mg/kg, respectively. Factor analysis showed that the four common factors of ''sugar and mineral elements'', ''active substances'', ''protein'' and ''fat'' could be extracted from the multitudinous nutrient factors of Perilla leaves. The best comprehensive quality performance was C05, followed by C12, C11, C06 and C10. Cluster analysis indicated that 14 Perilla lines could be divided into three groups, they were ''high-sugar and high-mineral group'', ''high-fat and high-protein and high-active ingredient group'' and ''high-fiber and low-nutrition group'', including 8, 3 and 3 lines correspondingly. The essential oil detection and composition analysis showed that the content of essential oil ranged from 0.25% to 1.09% in 14 Perilla lines. The chemotype of essential oil of 14 Perilla lines could be divided into four types: PA type (rich in L-perillaldehyde), pp-m type (rich in 1,3-benzodioxole, 4-methoxy-6-(2-propenyl)-), atypical EK+type (mainly containing elsholtzia ketone) and MP type (rich in 1-(furan-2-yl)-4-methylpentan-1-one), including 7, 1, 2 and 4 Perilla lines respectively. After comprehensive evaluation, it was concluded that C05 was the best line in quality and was also rich in PA-type essential oil, which could be developed into both medicine and food.