Food, Industrial, Nutraceutical, and Pharmaceutical Uses of Sesame Genetic Resources

INTRODUCTION Sesame (Sesamum indicum L., Pedaliaceae) is a very old cultivated crop and thought to have originated in Africa (Ram et al. 1990). However, Oplinger et al. (1990) have indicated it to be a highly prized oil crop of Babylon and Assyria about 4,000 years ago. The Chinese burned sesame oil for light and to make soot for their ink blocks. African slaves brought sesame seeds, which they called benne seeds to America where sesame became a popular ingredient in Southern recipes. The English term sesame traces back to the Arabic simsim, Coptic semsem, and early Egyptian semsent (Home Cooking 1998). Sesame is an annual self pollinating plant with an erect, pubescent, branching stem, and 0.60 to 1.20 m tall. The leaves are ovate to lanceolate or oblong while the lower leaves are trilobed and sometimes ternate and the upper leaves are undivided, irregularly serrate and pointed (Felter and Lloyd 1898). The older cultivars have smooth and flat leaves while the nonshattering cultivars have cupped leaves with leaflike outgrowths on their lower side. Some cultivars have many branches, while others are relatively unbranched (Kinman and Martin 1954). The flowers are tubular, pendulant, bell shaped, and two lipped with a pale purple or rose to white color and 1.9–2.5 cm (0.75–1") long (Martin and Leonard 1967). In addition, the flowers are borne on short glandular pedicels (Felter and Lloyd 1898). One flower is produced at each leaf axil and the lower flowers usually bloom 2 to 3 months after planting with continuous blooming until the uppermost flowers are open (Martin and Leonard 1967). The fruit is an oblong, mucronate, pubescent capsule containing numerous small, oval, and yellow, white, red, brown, or black seeds (Felter and Lloyd 1898; McCormick Sesame Seed 2001). Japan uses sesame seed as a health food and leads the world in sesame seed imports followed by Europe and the US. About 70% of the world’s sesame seed is processed into oil and meal. White sesame seed is imported from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador while black sesame seed comes from China and Thailand. Total annual consumption is about 65% for oil extraction and 35% for food. The food segment includes about 42% roasted sesame, 12% ground sesame, 36% washed sesame, and 10% roasted sesame seed with salt. People generally consume more than twice as much white sesame as black sesame (International Trade Center 1993). Sesame oil is also referred to as teel oil or benne oil and is a pale yellow, oily liquid, and almost odorless with a bland taste. The oil consists of glycerides with about 43% oleic and linoleic each, 9% palmitic, and 4% stearic fatty acids. Sesame genetic resources conserved at the USDA, ARS, Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit represents 869 available accessions from countries worldwide (Table 1).