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Abstract:
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In the present study on natural antioxidants, the focus has been kept
mainly on oil seeds, especially sesame and its by-products. Sesame, which has been
under cultivation in India for centuries is called the 'Queen of oil seed crops' because of
the high yield of oil obtained and the nutritional qualities of the seed, oil, and meal.
Though India is the largest producer of sesame in the world, research on the various
health benefits of sesame has been carried out by Japanese Sesame has an important place
in the foods and tradit..ional medicine of India from time immemorial. Foreseeing the
potential of sesame and its byproducts as an important antioxidant source and its
availability in bulk, the present study was focussed on Sesamum species. There are not
many reports on the wild species of Sesamum in India, especially of the Kerala region.
Hence, in the present study we also included antioxidants of Sesamurnrnalabaricumdistributed
throughout the coastal region.The important characteristics of sesame are attributed to the presence of
the umquc compounds lignans. Lignans arc a group of natural products of phenyl propanoid ongm, whieh are widely distributed in nature. They display important
physiological functions in plants, in human nutrition and medicine, given their extensive
health promotive and curative properties. Much interest has been focussed on their
effectiveness as antineoplastic agents and research in this area has revealed several modes
of action by which they can regulate the growth of mammalian cells. Sesame is an
important source of furofuran lignans, of which sesamin and the rare oxygenated
derivative sesamoIin are the most abundant. Others include sesamol and glucosides of
lignans. Sesarnin and episesamin are reported to have hypocholesterolemic effect,
suppressive effect on chemically induced cancer, alleviation of allergy symptoms etc.
Sesamol, sesamolin and the lignan glycosides are reported to inhibit lipid peroxidation.
Present investigation on sesame and its byproducts have been carried out to explore the
possibility of developing a natural antioxidant extract from available resources to be used
as a substitute to synthetic ones in vegetable oils and foods. Preliminary analysis showed
that sesame cake, a byproduct could still be utilized as a major source of lignans. Sesame
cake, which is now used only as a cattlefeed, can be better utilized in the form of a
valuable antioxidant source. The present study explains the development of a feasible
process for the extraction of antioxidant compounds from sesame cake. The antioxidant
extract so prepared from sesame cake has been tested for vegetable oil protection and is
found to be effective at low concentration. In addition, studies also include the
antioxidant, radical scavenging, anticancer, mosquitocidal and pesticidal activities of
extract and individual compounds. |