SESAM INDICUM. Linn.
S. oriental°, Linn. I S. luteum, S. trifoliatum, I laciniatum, 1V.
41-jylau, Duhu, . ARAD. ? ShItelu, . . . MALEAL. }Nam Ilnan•ma, Bumf. Kunjed, . . . PER& Wull•ellu, Yellu, . CAN. Tila, SANSS.
. Tel-tale, . .
. . . • •• Tun-pat-tala, . . „ Samsun, . . . EGYPT. EeMkUli, . . . SUMATRA.
Summon, . . . GR. Yelloo, Yelloo-chedi, Tam.
Til, . Nuvu, Nuvulu, . TEL.
Safed-Til, „ Banglo, . . hams.
. . .
The Oil, Gingelly Oil.
Jiritch, . . . . ATtAD. Manchi noonay, . TEL.
Mitha tel, ka tel, HIND. Kurit, Sehuk, . . ? Nal-yennai, . . . Tam. , There are two strongly-marked vatieties of this plant under criltivation,— black sesamuua and white or yellow or red sestunum, which possess the same properties, and in commerce are met witlt both in a mixed and separate state. It is an annual plant growing all over India, but both are cultivated there, also in China, Egypt, the Levant, W. Indies, and S. America. In a good soil it grows generally to be about three or four feet high. In the Dekhan, it is a common plant springing up in waste places, and flowering to wards the close of the rains. The white variety is sown in Bengal in February, and the crop got in three months afterwards, so that the dews and the little remaining moisture of the earth are the only sources of hutnidity by which it can benefit, as this is genemlly a period of drought. The black variety is sown on high places, about the beg,inning of the mins (July), and the crop cut down in September.
First sort gingelly, in the Northern Cirears, is the produce of the plant, which is sown in the month of March, after the rice crop, and is irrigated twice, once at sowing and once after wards. The seed is black, and is called finit sort gingelly from its yielding the largest percentage of oil ; it ripens in May, and the seed sells at the rate of Its. GO per candy of 500 lbs. The oil obtained from both varieties sells at the same price, viz. Hs. 1.5 to Ils. 6 per maund of 25 lbs., according to quality and locality.
Second sort gingelly, of the Northern Circars, is sown in June, and produces a red seed. The
plant, although a little larger, resembles in most respects the former ; it has, however, a somewhat longer leaf, and the flower differs a shade or two in colour. A candy of 500 lbs. of this seed sells at Es. 57.8. The price of the oil is the same as that of the first sort. About A.D. 1845 this seed began to be exported to France, iu consequence of which the price doubled.
The black-seeded variety has a deep red or deep rose-coloured blossotu ; while the flower of the white-seeded variety is of a pale-purple or whitish-rose colour.
The seeds are slightly oval, small, tasteless, and inodorous, are sometimes added to broths, fre quently made into cakes by the Jews in the east. It is about the same size as mustard seed, only not round. The expressed oil is as clear and sweet as that from almonds, and probably the Behens oil, used in varnish, is no other. It is called by the Arabs Jiritch, and the seed Bennie in Africa. In Mysore, after being cut, it is stacked a week, then exposed to the sun for three days, but gathered into heaps at night ; and be tween every two days of such drying it is kept a day in the heap. By this process the pods burst and shed their seeds without threshing. Any disparity of colour observed in this oil is to be attributed to the mode of preparation., The inethod sometimes adopted is that of throwing the fresh seeds, without any cleansing process, into the common tnill, and expressing in the usual way. The oil thus becomes mixed with a large portion of the colouring rnatter of the epidermis of the seed, and is neither so pleasant to the eye, nor so agreeable to the taste, as that obtained by first repeatedly washing the seeds in cold water, or by boiling them for a short time, until the whole of the reddish-brown colouring matter is removed, and the seeds have become perfectly white. They are then cilia in the sun, and the oil expressed as usual. This process yields 40 to 44 per cent. of a very pale straw-coloured, sweet srnelling oil,—an excellent substitute for olive oil.