428 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol.XII, No. 2, 
good sound seed. Many of the seeds were light. Compared 
with the original Japanese seed, Ohio grown seed is fully 19% 
lighter in weight per equal volume. 
According to Lewkowitsch (Oils, Vol. 3, p. 38), Pcrilla oil 
occurs to the extent of 36% in the nutlets of Perilla ocimoides. 
In our own sample of Japanese perilla, we found, by extraction 
with benzol, 45% oil. Ohio grown perilla from same seed, by the 
same method, gave 41% oil. Ohio grow perilla oil is much darker 
and thinner than oil of Japanese origin, and when first extracted 
retains the strong odor of the growing plant. 
Perilla oil when exposed to warm air, drys rapidly to a film. 
In Japan, the boiled hot oil is applied by means of brush or cloth, 
to the common paper sun shades and the treated articles exposed 
to the sun for five hours. 
The drying qualities of perilla oil is said by authorities to be 
inferior on account of the tendency of the oil to gather in drops 
during the spreading operation. We do not find this to be the 
case. Japanese perilla oil and linseed oil agree very closely in 
their spreading qualities. In their drying qualities they differ, 
linseed oil drying much faster. Perilla oil, however, gives a smooth 
film. Films are equal in toughness and strength. 
With paper, duplication of Japanese umbrella test, linseed 
shows to the better in giving a perfectly dry coating in much 
shorter time than perilla. Quality of coatings practically the 
same. In the same test, Japanese oil gave better results than the 
Ohio oil. This poor showing may be due to the newness of the 
seed. Old flaxseed oil or tanked linseed oil dries much better than 
new oil. Ohio oil, however, is much more fluid than oil of Japanese 
origin. This, also, may be due to the presence of the natural 
stearopteneor perilla camphor found in the fresh plant. 
Compared with flax, the crop with which it will compete, we 
get this data: An acre of flax yields 9 bushels or 504 pounds of 
seed containing 176.4 pounds (22.6 gallons) of oil, making, at 90c 
per gallon, an oil value of $20.34 per acre. To this must be added 
the returns from two valuable by-products, oil-cake and fibre. 
An acre of perilla will give 400 pounds of seed containing 164 
pounds (21.3 gallons) oil, making, at 70c per gallon, an oil value 
of $15.61 per acre. Perilla stems are worthless for fibre or fodder, 
and the value of the press cake for cattle food or fertilizer is 
unknown. It is possible that the cake residue could be directed 
towards a supply of bread stuff and that the essential oil or camphor 
could be obtained on the same lines as the peppermint oil industry. 
Assuming that the cost of production is the same, and that other 
conditions are equal, facing a loss of $4.73 per acre, it is hardly 
probable that this new crop will supplant flax as an Ohio crop. On 
the other hand, the argument presented points to the substitution 
of flax for perilla in Japanese agriculture and in the old opium 
fields of the new Chinese Republic. 
Akron, Ohio. 
