SESAMEÆ.
OLEUM SESAMI.
Sesamé Oil, Gingeli, Gingili or Jinjili Oil, Til or Teel Oil, Benné Oil; F. Huile de Sésame; G. Sesamöl.
Botanical Origin—Sesamum indicum DC., an erect, pubescent annual herb, 2 to 4 feet high,[1729] indigenous to India, but propagated by cultivation throughout the warmer regions of the globe, and not now found anywhere in the wild state. In Europe, Sesamum is only grown in some districts of Turkey and Greece, and on a small scale in Sicily and in the islands of Malta and Gozo. It does not succeed well even in the South of France.
History—Sesamé is a plant which we find on the authority of the most ancient documents of Egyptian, Hebrew,[1730] Sanskrit, Greek, and Roman literature, has been used by mankind for the sake of its oily seeds from the earliest times. The Egyptian name Semsemt already occurring in the Papyrus Ebers, is still existing in the Coptic Semsem, the Arabic Simsim, and the modern Sesamum. The Indian languages have their own terms for it, the Hindustani Til, from the Sanskrit Tila, being one of the best known.[1731] Tila already occurs in the Vedic literature. In the days of Pliny the oil was an export from Sind to Europe by way of the Red Sea, precisely as the seeds are at the present day.
During the middle ages the plant, then known as Suseman or Sempsen, was cultivated in Cyprus, Egypt and Sicily; the oil was an article of import from Alexandria to Venice. Joachim Camerarius gave a good figure of the plant in his “Hortus medicus et philosophicus” 1588 (tab. 44). In modern times sesame oil gave way to that of olives, yet at present it is an article which, if not so renowned, is at least of far greater consumption.
Production—The plant comes to perfection within 3 or 4 months; its capsule contains numerous flat seeds, which are about ²/₁₀10 of an inch long by ¹/₂₀ thick, and weigh on an average ¹/₁₆ of a grain. To collect them, the plant when mature is cut down, and stacked in heaps for a few days, after which it is exposed to the sun during the day, but collected again into heaps at night. By this process the capsules gradually ripen and burst, and the seeds fall out.[1732]
The plant is found in several varieties affording respectively white, yellowish, reddish, brown or black seeds. The dark seeds may be deprived of a part of their colouring matter by washing, which is sometimes done with a view to obtain a paler oil.[1733]
We obtained from yellowish seeds 56 per cent. of oil; on a large scale, the yield varies with the variety of seed employed and the process of pressing, from 45 to 50 per cent.
Description—The best kinds of sesamé oil have a mild agreeable taste, a light yellowish colour, and scarcely any odour; but in these respects the oil is liable to vary with the circumstances already mentioned. The white seeds produced in Sind are reputed to yield the finest oil.