Research Article
Sepide Miraj and Sara Kiani
Abstract
Sesamum indicum (black seasame) is a plant growing and cultivated in Africa, India and Asia including some parts of Iran. This plant was used in Iranian folk medicine for their digestive, carminative, antispasmodic, sedative, analgesic, tonic and diuretic as well as for functional gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to overview its bioactive properties. This review article was carried out by searching studies in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Iran Medex databases .The initial search strategy identified about 102 references. In this study, 43 studies was accepted for further screening and met all our inclusion criteria (in English, full text, Antioxidant activity of seasame and dated mainly from the year 1990 to 2016).The search terms were “Antioxidant activity, Sesamum indicum, pharmacological activity, chemical compound, alternative medicine. The results of this study was indicated that this plant is commonly used for its antioxidant properties. It showed that Sesaminol inhibited the lipid peroxidation in LDL in a concentration dependent manner. Free radical scavenging capacity, inhibition of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and metal chelating capacity of extracts of sesame seeds was shown that it has high antioxidant activity. These antioxidative components are effective via synergistic action. Antioxidative activity of refined unroasted seed oil is mainly attributed to Sesaminol. Antioxidant agent of sesame was introduced to be related to the Presence of various new antioxidative lignan phenol compounds in sesame seed and oil. Sesaminol as a new antioxidative principle in raw sesame salad oil was introduced. The mechanism of the superior antioxidative activity of roasted sesame oil was associated to its synergistic effect of the browning products with tocopherol, sesamol, and sesamin. Seasame is widely used for its antioxidant activities that trigger its significant value. Various combinations and numerous medicinal properties of its seed, oil, cake, coat demand further and more studies about the other useful and unknown properties of this multipurpose plant.