Mourad A. M. Aboul-Soud

Recently, processed foods have become an important part of human eating habits. However, several processing techniques, such as dehulling and roasting, are applied to raw foods. Roasting is a thermal process that depends on temperature and time and improves the extraction yield of oil by generating pores in the oilseed cell walls. Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an annual plant belonging to Pedaliaceae and is considered to be one of the oldest oil crops. Nowadays, the cultivation of this plant is economically important in several countries. This review clarifies the botanical characteristics and nutritional importance of sesame seeds, reviews their phytochemical composition, and discusses the effects of dehulling and roasting on their nutritional quality. S. indicum, which is known to contain several classes of bioactive compounds, including fatty acids, phenolic compounds, amino acids, and lignans, has been reported to possess a wide range of biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, and cardioprotective activity; however, processing such as dehulling eliminates undesirable chemical constituents while roasting provides the best chemical composition at moderate temperatures.