Sesamum indicum Seeds | Sesame
LATIN NAME: Sesamum indicum
COMMON NAME: Sesame
Plant Profile
Sesame is an upright annual of one to two metres with hairy stems, lance-shaped leaves and white bell flowers with a purple flush, followed by capsules that split along four seams to release flat oval seed. It is grown from seed each year and is one of the oldest oil crops in the world.
It was domesticated on the Indian subcontinent or in Africa, and it appears in Mesopotamian records by 3000 BC. The plant is grown today from China to Nigeria, mostly by smallholders, and the seed is traded as a food and as an oilseed. The leaves are opposite and hairy, and the lower ones are often three-lobed while the upper ones are narrow.
Science & Biotechnology
The wild form shatters its capsules as soon as they are ripe, which scatters the seed and makes harvesting impossible. The cultivated form carries a mutation that keeps the capsule closed, so the crop can be cut and dried whole. That single change is the basis of the crop, and modern breeding still works on shatter resistance.
The seed contains about fifty per cent oil, and the oil is unusually stable because of two lignans, sesamin and sesamol, which resist oxidation. That stability is why sesame oil was used as a preservative and as a base for medicines, and why it keeps for years without going rancid in a warm climate.
Uses & Benefits
The seed is used whole on bread and in confectionery, ground into tahini and into halva, and pressed for oil. In East Asia the toasted oil is used as a seasoning rather than as a cooking fat, and the paste is used in sauces and in dips.
The pressed cake is a protein feed, and the oil is used in cosmetics and in soap. The leaves are eaten as a green in some districts, and the seed is used in traditional medicine as a laxative. The crop is also grown as a rotation break for cotton and for cereals. The oil is also used as a carrier in massage and in Ayurvedic preparations, where its stability is the reason it is chosen over softer oils.
Growing from Seed
Sow when the soil is above twenty degrees, since the seed will not germinate in cold ground, at one centimetre in rows forty centimetres apart. Germination takes four to seven days, and the seedlings are slow at first and easily swamped by weeds.
The crop needs a hundred days of warm weather and a dry finish, since rain at harvest stains the seed. Cut the stems when the lower capsules turn yellow and stand them in shocks to dry, then thresh. In a cool climate the crop will not ripen, and it is better grown as a novelty in a polytunnel than in the open.
Our Take
An ancient oilseed that needs heat and a dry finish, and one that rewards a warm summer with jars of seed for the year. Sow it late, not early.
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