Files
Abstract
Excerpts : Sesame shares with coconut oil the earliest record of use by civilized man. Herodotus reported field-scale culture of this crop in 450 B.C. The "Open Sesame" of the Arabian Nights shows the importance given it in early times. The women of Babylonia used the oil as a cosmetic as well as for food. Index Kewensis lists 36 species of Sesamum from Africa, Brazil, British India, Crete, and the East Indies. The original home of S. indicum (orientale), commonly cultivated throughout the Tropics, is undetermined.