Profiling of nutritionally important metabolites in green/red and green perilla (Perilla frutescens Britt.) cultivars: A comparative study

[Display omitted] •Perilla frutescens is an economically important annual herb available in Asian region.•Several distinct classes of bioactive metabolites were screened in green and green/red perilla leaves.•Both green/red perilla leaves were found to be rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.•This study provides rapid and sensitive analysis of bioactive metabolites in perilla leaves. Perilla frutescens (L.) Britt. is an economically important annual herb and predominantly available in the Asian region including Korea. In the present investigation, nutritionally important compounds belonging to several distinct classes were screened in green and green/red perilla leaves utilizing modern LC–MS/MS, GC–FID, and GCMS based approaches. A total of 11 lipophilic phytoconstituents belonging to carotenoids, tocols (tocopherols and tocotrienols), phylloquinone and phytosterols were simultaneously extracted and quantified utilizing a MRM based LC–MS/MS method. Similarly, a total of 11 fatty acids were identified using GC-FID and GC–MS. In LC–MS/MS analysis of anthocyanins, malonyl-shisonin was identified as the dominant form of anthocyanin in the red/green perilla leaves. The quantitative data showed that the green/red leaves contain a significantly (p