Sesame is among the most important oil seeds of mankind, and one of
its oldest. Sesame is an ancient cultigen. Today, it is mostly
grown in India and the Far East (China, Korea), but its origin is
probably tropic Africa (although some other sources seem to favour
an Indian origin) The seeds contain about *0 to *0% of a fatty oil,
which is characterized by a two lignanes, sesamin and sesamolin
(approximately **0 ppm in the oil), whence during raffination two
phenolic antioxidants, sesamol (3,*-methylenedioxyphenol) and
sesaminol, are formed. Sesame oil is mostly composed of
triglycerides of the singly unsaturated oleic acid (*0%) and the
doubly unsaturated linoleic acid (*5%), besides approximately *0%
saturated fats (iodine index **0). Because of its powerful
antioxidant and because triply unsaturated fatty acids are missing,
sesame oil has an excellent shelf life Sesame seed is used in the
extraction of oil and cooking