Sesame Crop: An Underexploited Oilseed Holds Tremendous Potential for Enhanced Food Value

Abstract

Sesame, an important oilseed crop, highly valued for its oil quality contains plethora of nutritive substances such as proteins, carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), lignans (sesamin and sesamolin), tocopherol, phytosterols, phytates and other micronutrients. The presence of these substances enhances the keeping quality of oil by preventing oxidative rancidity. Benefits of this underexploited crop include antioxidative, anticancer, antihypersensitive and tumor-suppressive properties. Despite of its high nutritional value, research on this valuable oilseed is meagre due to several biotic and abiotic stresses and absence of non-shattering cultivars. Thus, to explore the potential of sesame as an important oilseed possessing multifarious property, we have tried to provide a detailed overview of the crop and its genetic diversity available throughout the world. Sesame is a promising target oilseed crop for biotechnological applications and marker based studies. The genetic manipulation in the crop along with other strategies would enable development of varieties with high nutritional and functional value. Our aim is to explore the hidden heterogeneity in the crop and provide impetus for valuable oilseed research.