Uses
Sesame seed, paste and oil are utilized in a very wide range of edible products. Crude sesame oil pressed from the seed can be used directly as cooking oil, while refined oil is used as a salad oil or wherever an edible oil of good keeping quality is needed. Sesame seeds are used in various food preparations, raw or roasted. Throughout the Arab world the seed is crushed into a tasty paste called ‘tahini’. The mixture of seeds with sugar and flour is called ‘halva’. Toasted seeds are consumed in soups or, mixed with caramelized sugar can be shaped into candies. Seeds are often sprinkled on cakes, rolls and cookies before baking. Oil is used in the manufacture of margarine and compound cooking fats. As salad oil it is often combined with other edible oils. In India the oil is used as a component of vegetable ghee and for anointing hair and skin. It is further used as a carrier for medicines and perfumes and as a synergist for pyrethrin-based insecticides. Poor grades are used in the production of soaps, paints, lubricants and lamp-oil. Sesame cake is an excellent livestock feed and a raw material for several foodstuffs. Young leaves are used as a soup vegetable in sub-Saharan Africa. In southern Africa the leaves are smoked as a substitute for tobacco. The ash of the stem is a substitute for salt, and is viewed as a good source of minerals. Dry stalks are used as fuel and as construction material, for building shelters. Various plant parts are used in native medicine in Africa and Asia for a variety of ailments. Mucilaginous leaves or leaf sap are used to treat fever, as a remedy for cough and sore eyes and to kill head lice; the sap is taken to facilitate childbirth, to treat dysentery and gonorrhoea and is used in dressings after circumcision. In eastern and southern Africa the leaves play a role in the treatment of snakebites and malaria, in India and China in the treatment of cancers. Ash from burned stems is used as a medicinal salt. The oil is used to treat cough and earache, and as an emmenagogue and abortifacient. Sesame seeds are valued for their laxative effect.
Production and international trade