Sesame

Botanical Name - Sesamum indicum

Category - Medicinal

Form - Dry

Part Used - Seeds

General Information - Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is herbaceous annual plant belonging to the Pedaliaceae family. Sesame seed is also known as benniseed (Africa), benne (Southern United States), gingelly (India), gengelin (Brazil), sim-sim, semsem (Hebrew) and tila (Sanskrit). It is one of the worldâ??s important and oldest oilseed crops and has been used extensively for thousands of years as a seed of worldwide significance for edible oil, paste, cake, confectionary purposes and flour due to its highly stable oil contents, nutritious protein (rich in methionine, tryptophan and valine) and savory nutty roasted flavor.

Phytochemicals- S. indicum contained significant amounts of flavonoids while the seeds possessed the highest flavonoids levels. Flavonoids belong to a group of polyphenolics compounds. Polyphenols are plant compounds with a high level of antioxidant activity. This activity is due to their ability to ad-sorb, neutralize and quench free radicals. The high content of flavonoids in this plant (4.98-16.12%) might be responsible for its usefulness as a food and herbal drug. Phenols are known as important plant constituents that protect plants from oxidant damage due to their hydroxyl group. The levels of phenol contents in all the parts of S. indicum (0.13-0.016%) were very low.