History
Sesame seeds are one of the first flower seeds to be used as an ingredient to add colour or flavor to the food, along with first species of plant to be used for cooking oil. Dating it back to the early 1600 BC, it is said that sesame seeds were first used by the Assyrian gods, who drank sesame wine the night before they created the earth. The word sesame is derived from three languages Arabic simsim, Egyptian semsent and Coptic semsem. The sesame seeds roots are found in various parts of the world. One of them is Africa, where the salves brought the seeds to America after which the seeds became in demand for the southern cuisines. These seeds are also cultivated in India but in smaller proportion. The flowers which contain these seeds are mostly yellow in colour, but can some can hues of purple or blue in them. It is one the greatest quality of sesame seeds that they do not go stale or gives off unpleasant smell that often as compared to other cooking oil seeds.
- One of the highlighted health benefits of sesame seed is that it contains sesamin and sasamolin. These substances are part of beneficial fibers called lignans, which helps in lowering the blood pressure and controlling the cholesterol level. This automatically provides a shield for liver protection.
- Being rich in Vitamin E, this natural seed helps in protecting the heart along with the nervous system.
- Another benefit is that it carries amino acids and quality dietary proteins, which are full of nutrient for the growth of children in young age. 18 g of rich proteins are provided by 100g of sesame seeds.