by James R Coffey

Created on: December 13, 2010

Sesame is a flowering plant indigenous to the tropical regions of Africa and India, cultivated for its edible seeds which grow in pods. Its flowers are predominately yellow, but can vary from blue or purple to charcoal black. Despite the fact that the majority of the wild species of sesame are native to sub-Saharan Africa, archeological evidence shows that it was first cultivated at Harappa in the Indus Valley around 2250 to 1750 BCE, with evidence of first usage dating to 3000 BCE China, where sesame oil was burned as a light source and used to make soot for ink-blocks. Its wider usage in medicine, religion, and culinary settings is traced to India and the Makran region of Pakistan, sometime during the 2nd century BCE.

Perhaps the most widely-known sesame seed reference is, of course, “Open sesame,” the magic words used by Ali Baba to open the entrance of the secret treasure cave in the classic Arabic tale, The Thousand and One Nights. Literary historians believe that sesame was so commonly used among Arabs, that the logic was that this phrase would quickly be forgotten by outsiders because it was so familiar. Other historians attribute the phrase to the manner in which the ripened sesame seed pods burst open much like the sudden pop of a lock springing open. In either regard, its reference is now known virtually world-wide.

Interwoven into Eastern mythology, according to Assyrian cosmology the gods were drinking sesame seed wine when they created the world, thus making it holy. In Hindu legends, tales are told in which sesame seeds represent immortality and the god Maha Vishnu’s consort, Maha Sri Devi, and are used in Hindu rituals and referenced in prayers. In Tamil literature, the Dravidian language of the Indian subcontinent, sesame is a sacred plant whose oil is prescribed for malnourishment, with the taking of a sesame oil bath at least once a week (on Wednesday and Saturday for males, Fridays for females), mandatory in Tamil tradition, with a weekly shower of sesame oil said to reduce the body heat of those living in hot and humid tropical regions.

It was during the early 17th century that African slaves first brought sesame seeds, which they called benné seeds, to America, where they quickly became a mainstay of Southern dishes. Sesame seed cookies and wafers, both sweet and savory, are still popular today in places like Charleston, South Carolina, and can be found offered at many bed & breakfasts there. Now widely appreciated

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