EXPLORING NUTRITIONAL AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF SESAME SEED CAKES: AN INDUSTRIAL BY-PRODUCT

Sesame (Sesamum indicum), as an oilseed, has been explored widely by the oil industry. Therefore, the production of its by-product, seed cake is also high. Since the seed cake is a high source of protein and fiber, it has the potential to be utilized as value-added food product. The present study is aimed to evaluate various functional and nutritional properties of four selected varieties of white (Pragati and Shekhar) and black (VIP and Ojha) sesame seeds and their seed cake, as obtained by solvent extraction. The study revealed significantly (p<0.01) higher water and oil absorption capacities, as well as the swelling capacity of all studied sesame seed cakes than their whole or flour of sesame seed. The study has shown that sesame seed (27.25 g/100g) and cake (48.36 g/100g) of the Pragati variety have exceptionally high protein content. VIP variety of sesame seed and cake are a rich source of fiber, having 18.74g/100g and 29.56 g/100g respectively. The high fiber also shows good correlations with water absorption capacity, as recorded in the case of sesame flour (r 2 =0.966) and seed cake (r 2 =0.916). The high functional and nutritional values of sesame seed cakes suggest their potential use in developing a functional ingredient for food and nutraceutical formulations.