Editing Sesame (section)

== Origins and history ==

[[File:Leiden University Library - Seikei Zusetsu vol. 20, page 006 - 胡麻 - Sesamum indicum L., 1804.jpg|thumb |left |upright |From the ''[[Seikei Zusetsu]]'' agriculture encyclopedia, 1804]]

Sesame seed is considered to be the oldest [[oilseed]] crop known to humanity.<ref name="Ram Catlin Romero 1990">{{cite book |last1=Ram |first1=Raghav |first2=David |last2=Catlin |first3=Juan |last3=Romero |first4=Craig |last4=Cowley |chapter=Sesame: New Approaches for Crop Improvement |pages=225–228 |editor1=Janick, J. |editor2=Simon, J.E. |title=Advances in new crops |location=Oregon |publisher=Timber Press |year=1990 |url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/v1-225.html}}</ref> The genus has many species, and most are wild and native to sub-Saharan Africa.<ref name="Bedigian-2015">{{cite journal |last=Bedigian |first=Dorothea |title=Systematics and evolution in ''Sesamum'' L. (Pedaliaceae), part 1: Evidence regarding the origin of sesame and its closest relatives |journal=[[Webbia (journal) |Webbia]] |publisher=[[University of Florence]] |volume=70 |issue=1 |date=2015-01-02 |doi=10.1080/00837792.2014.968457 |pages=1–42 |bibcode=2015Webbi..70....1B |s2cid=85002894}}</ref> ''Sesamum indicum'', the cultivated type,<ref name="Y. P. S. Bajaj">{{cite book |first1=T. |last1=Ogasawara |first2=K. |last2=Chiba |first3=M. |last3=Tada |chapter=''Sesamum indicum'' L. (Sesame): In Vitro Culture, and the Production of Naphthoquinone and Other Secondary Metabolites |title=Medicinal and Aromatic Plants X |editor=Y. P. S. Bajaj |publisher=Springer |date=1988 |isbn=978-3-540-62727-2}}</ref><ref>''Proceedings of the Harlan Symposium'' 1997- [http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/Web_version/47/begin.htm The Origins of Agriculture and Crop Domestication] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120527094040/http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/Web_version/47/begin.htm |date=2012-05-27 }} Retrieved 2012-06-17</ref> originated in India.<ref name="Bedigian-2010" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Zohary |first1=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1H6_XWJS_gC&q=wild%2520sesame%2520native&pg=PA140 |title=Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley |last2=Hopf |first2=Maria |date=2000 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-850357-6 |page=140}}</ref><ref name="Bedigian-2015" />

Archaeological remnants of charred sesame dating to about 3500-3050 BC shows that sesame was domesticated in the [[Indian subcontinent]] at least 5500 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bedigian |first1=Dorothea |last2=Harlan |first2=Jack R. |date=1986 |title=Evidence for Cultivation of Sesame in the Ancient World |journal=Economic Botany |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=137–154 |doi=10.1007/BF02859136 |jstor=4254846 |bibcode=1986EcBot..40..137B |s2cid=24408335}}</ref><ref name="Oplinger Putnam 1990">{{cite book |chapter=Sesame |title=Alternative Field Crops Manual |last1=Oplinger |first1=E.S. |last2=Putnam |first2=D.H. |last3=Kaminski |first3=A.R. |author4=C.V. Hanson |author5=E.A. Oelke |author6=E.E. Schulte |author7=J.D. Doll |display-authors=3 |publisher=[[Purdue University]] |date=May 1990 |url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/sesame.html}}</ref> The [[archaeobotanist]] Dorian Q. Fuller <!--of University College London--> states that trading of sesame between Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent occurred by 2000 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fuller |first=Dorian Q. |journal=Asian Agri-History |volume=7 |number=2 |date=2003 |pages=127–137 |title=Further Evidence on the Prehistory of Sesame |url=http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/articles/Sesame2.pdf}}</ref> It is possible that the [[Indus Valley civilization]] exported [[sesame oil]] to [[Mesopotamia]], where it was known as ''ilu'' in [[Sumerian language |Sumerian]] and ''ellu'' in [[Akkadian language |Akkadian]], similar to the Dravidian languages [[Kannada]] and [[Malayalam]] ''eḷḷu'', Tamil ''eḷ''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martha |first=T. Roth |title=The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD) Volume 4, E |year=1958 |isbn=978-0-91-898610-8 |location=Chicago |page=106}}</ref>

Sesame was cultivated in ancient Egypt.<ref>{{cite book |last=David |first=Ann Rosalie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RulD63Y3BlAC |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-513215-1 |page=168}}</ref> Egyptians called it ''sesemt'', and it is included in the list of medicinal drugs in the scrolls of the {{circa}} 1550 BC ''[[Ebers Papyrus]]''. Excavations of King Tutankhamen uncovered baskets of sesame among other grave goods, suggesting that sesame was present in Egypt by 1350 BC.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Voeks |first1=Robert |title=African Ethnobotany in the Americas |last2=Rashford |first2=John |year=2013 |location=Springer, New York |pages=67–123}}</ref> Sesame was grown and pressed to extract oil at least 750 BC in the empire of [[Urartu]].<ref name="Oplinger Putnam 1990"/> Others believe it may have originated in [[Ethiopia]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Peter |first=K.V. |title=Handbook of herbs and spices Volume 2 |date=2012 |page=449}}</ref>

Historically, sesame was favored for its ability to grow in areas that do not support the growth of other crops. It is a robust crop that needs little farming support—it grows in drought conditions, in high heat, with residual moisture in soil after monsoons are gone or even when rains fail or when rains are excessive. It can be grown by subsistence farmers at the edge of deserts, earning it the name of survivor crop from the sesame breeder Derald Ray Langham.<ref name="drl2">{{cite web |title=Phenology of Sesame |first=Derald Ray |last=Langham |publisher=American Sesame Growers Association |url=http://www.sesamegrowers.org/langham144-182.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628021818/http://www.sesamegrowers.org/langham144-182.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-28}}</ref>