sesame oil

Popular in Asian cooking, sesame oil is obtained from the seed of the sesame plant. Due to its antioxidant content, sesame oil imparts numerous health benefits, including protection from oxidative damage and benefits to heart health. Being closely related to national economy and people's livelihood, sesame oil industry is enjoying a boom along with the establishment and improvement of Chinese market economy as well as the opening of grain and oil market. The main producers of sesame are India and China, with other big producers in other parts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the West Indies. World production of sesame is an estimated 2 to 5 million tons, but this number fluctuates due to local economic crop production pressures and weather conditions. In 2002, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ranked sesame sixth in world production as an edible oil seed (2,893,114 million tons) and twelfth in overall world production of vegetable oil (754,159 million tons). In 2003, the world trade in sesame seed was 486,000 metric tons. Japan and the U.S. were the largest importers with 24％ and 8％ of the world imports respectively. Future growth predictions for imports of sesame seed are 6％ to 8％ per year until the year 2012.