Sesame indian

Botanical illustration from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen , 1887

An annual herbaceous plant.

The lower leaves are opposite, the rest are alternate.

Flowers in leaf axils, corolla tubular, slightly irregular, yellowish in different shades, forms with bluish or purple flowers; four stamens , of which two are longer than the rest. Blossoms in June - July, bears fruit in August - September.

The fruit is an elongated four- or octagonal box with numerous seeds. The base of the box is round, the top is conical, an average length of 3.5 cm.

The percentage of oil in sesame seeds is very high. Depending on the cultivation area and variety, they contain up to 60% fatty oil , up to 20% protein and up to 16% soluble carbohydrates .

Of the antioxidants , gamma-tocopherols ( vitamin E ) and lignans unique to this plant ( sesamine , sesamoline ) are most important ^[2] . The latter, judging by experiments in rodents, prevent the development of fatty liver ^[3] , normalize lipid metabolism in the body ^{[4] [5]} , prolong the antioxidant effect of vitamin E ^{[6] [7]} and slow down aging ^[8] .

Sesame surpasses the majority of food products in calcium content, even many varieties of cheese . 100 g of raw sesame seeds contain an average of 975 mg of calcium ^[9] . For this reason, in the raw food system, sesame is considered as one of the main products that supply calcium to the body ^[10] . However, in seeds peeled from the shell, which are mainly sold at retail, the calcium content is more than 10 times lower - only 60 mg per 100 g ^[11]

Oxalates and phytic acid , whose content in sesame seeds is one of the highest ^{[12] [13],} impede the full assimilation of calcium, iron, and some other trace elements. To slightly reduce the content of anti-nutritional substances allows easy calcination of seeds in a pan.

Due to the long root system (the roots go into the soil to a depth of one meter), sesame is one of the least fanciful oil crops and gives a good crop in very arid conditions ^[14] .

In 2010, 3.84 million tons of sesame seeds were harvested in the world, in 2016 it was already 6.11 million tons. The largest manufacturers are Tanzania , Myanmar , India and China . The largest exporters of sesame seeds are India and Ethiopia , the largest importer is Japan .

In China and Southeast Asia, black seed sesame is preferred, which is cultivated, as a rule, in high places, and not in the lowlands ^[15] . In other parts of the world, white seed sesame prevails.

To improve the taste of seeds before sale, they are usually soaked in a special brine in order to dissolve the shell tightly adjacent to the core ^[16] . Peeled seeds of white seed sesame varieties are visually little different from whole seeds, but they are noticeably inferior to whole seeds in terms of vitamins and minerals.

If the conditions of drying and storage of sesame seeds are violated, unpleasant rancidity appears in the seeds. Seeds that are substandard in color and / or smell make up a significant part of the world crop and are sold, as a rule, at a discount.

About 65% of the crop goes to sesame oil production . The sesame meal formed in the oil mill has a high protein content and is considered a valuable high-calorie feed for livestock.

The breeding of Indian sesame seeds began in Asia several thousand years before our era. In the wild, this plant grows in India . Related species are found mainly in sub-Saharan Africa .

Sesame is mentioned in the economic documents of Babylonia, Assyria, Urartu , the New Kingdom of Egypt . The plant is ideally suited to the arid conditions of the Middle East , it can bring a good harvest even along the edges of deserts. On the territory of the “ Fertile Crescent ”, archaeologists discovered ancient oil mills for squeezing sesame oil.

The Arabic name for sesame - simsim - is known thanks to the expression " Simsim, open up !" From an oriental tale about Ali Baba . The Greeks borrowed the name of this plant from one of the Semitic languages ; Herodotus already called him sesame . Various forms of this word have passed into most modern languages ​​of Europe.

Sesame seeds are used both for the production of oil and for sprinkling flour products (rolls, pastries) and as a seasoning . Oriental sweets are produced from slightly calcined sesame seeds - tahini halva and kozinaki . Fried seeds have a particularly intense flavor.

In Arabian cuisine , pasta based on ground sesame, called tahini (also known as tahina , tkhina , tahin ), is common . This is one of the main ingredients of hummus , along with boiled chickpeas .

Sesame is a component of many Far Eastern dishes. In Chinese cuisine , sesame balls are sprinkled on them; in Japanese cuisine , gomashio seasoning is prepared from sesame seeds. Sesame oil is also widely used in Korean cuisine (for example, for making chaptas ).

Sesame seed differs from other edible seeds in extremely small sizes. To assimilate the nutrients contained in the seeds, it is recommended to grind them ^[17] immediately before use (ground sesame quickly rancid ^[18] ).

Grinding pre-soaked seeds in a blender with water (in combination 1 to 5) allows you to get a calcium-rich analogue of almond milk . For sweetness, just add a few dates to the blender ^[19] .

In hypersensitive people, eating sesame seeds causes allergic reactions more often than eating other edible seeds ^[20] .

• Vasilchenko I. T. Sesamum orientale L. - Eastern sesame // Flora of the USSR : 30 tons / started at hand. and under chap. ed. V. L. Komarova . - M .; L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1958. - T. 23 / ed. volumes B.K. Shishkin . - S. 12-13. - 776 p. - 2300 copies.
• Kamelin R.V. Sesamum indicum L. - Sesame ordinary, Indian // Flora of the European part of the USSR / Otv. ed. An. A. Fedorov . - L .: Science , 1981. - T.V. Ed. volumes R.V. Kamelin . - S. 316. - 380 p. - 4200 copies.
• Sesame // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Indian Sesame : information on a taxon in the Plantarium project (a identifier of plants and an illustrated atlas of species). (Retrieved July 23, 2012)