VARIATION OF SESAMIN AND SESAMOLIN CONTENTS IN SESAME CULTIVARS FROM CHINA

Abstract

A collection of 62 sesame cultivars from China were analyzed for sesamin and sesamolin contents in seeds using HPLC. Results showed the sesamin and sesamolin contents of these cultivars ranged from 0.82 to11.05 mg/g and 1.35 to 6.96 mg/g, respectively. About 60.0% of the cultivars stayed in the range from 6.0 to 9.0 mg/g in the total content of sesamin and sesamolin. On average, cultivars with white seed coat color had higher sesamin content than those samples with black color. The correlation coefficient between sesamin and sesamolin of the cultivars with different seed colors ranked as white (R = 0.44) < medium (R = 0.75) < black (R = 0.96). The landraces had higher sesamin and sesamolin contents than other cultivars significantly. The results of this study exhibited useful lignan information of the cultivars from China and identified potential cultivars having high sesamin or sesamolin for functional food, pharmaceutics and cosmetic industries.