Quality of Edible Sesame Oil as Obtained by Green Solvents: In Silico versus Experimental Screening Approaches

Sinda Trad; Emna Chaabani; Wissem Aidi Wannes; Sarra Dakhlaoui; Salma Nait Mohamed; Saber Khammessi; Majdi Hammami; Soumaya Bourgou; Moufida Saidani Tounsi; Anne-Sylvie Fabiano-Tixier; Iness Bettaieb Rebey

doi:10.3390/foods12173263

Quality of Edible Sesame Oil as Obtained by Green Solvents: In Silico versus Experimental Screening Approaches

Foods. 2023 Aug 30;12(17):3263. doi: 10.3390/foods12173263.

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Borj Cedria Biotechnology Center, BP. 901, Hammam-Lif 2050, Tunisia.
² GREEN Extraction Team, Université d'Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse, INRA, UMR408, 84000 Avignon, France.
³ Laboratory of Olive Biotechnology, Borj Cedria Biotechnology Center, Hammam-Lif 2050, Tunisia.

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the qualitative and quantitative performance of five green solvents, namely 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MeTHF), cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME), p-cymene, d-limonene and ethanol to substitute n-hexane, for sesame seed oil extraction. In fact, both CPME and MeTHF gave higher crude yields than n-hexane (58.82, 54.91 and 50.84%, respectively). The fatty acid profile of the sesame seed oils remained constant across all the solvent systems, with a predominance of oleic acid (39.27-44.35%) and linoleic acid (38.88-43.99%). The total sterols gained the upmost amount with CPME (785 mg/100 g oil) and MeTHF (641 mg/100 g oil). CPME and MeTHF were also characterized by the optimum content of tocopherols (52.3 and 50.6 mg/100 g oil, respectively). The highest contents of total phenols in the sesame seed oils were extracted by CPME (23.51 mg GAE/g) and MeTHF (22.53 mg GAE/g) as compared to the other solvents, especially n-hexane (8 mg GAE/g). Additionally, sesame seed oils extracted by MeTHF and CPME also had the highest antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties as compared to the other green solvents and n-hexane, encouraging their manufacturing use for sesame seed oil extraction.

Keywords: Sesamum indicum L.; anti-inflammatory activity; antioxidant potential; fatty acids; phenolics; seed oils; solvent extractions; sterols; tocopherols.

Grants and funding

This work was carried out with the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific supported this work research (LR15CBBC06). This research was also funded by the UNESCO GREEN and sustainable plant created by Pr Farid Chemat.