Black sesame

Black sesame seeds are unhulled, dark seeds with a strong, nutty, slightly bitter taste. Toast them for rice and bowls, or grind them for pastes and baking.

What is black sesame? The jet-black seed of the East

In the West, burger buns usually get a sprinkling of pale, bland, hulled white sesame. Across Asia, though – and especially in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda, both thousands of years old – people prize the unhulled, jet-black, slightly rough original seeds: black sesame (Sesamum indicum). These tiny, oily seeds don't just make a striking contrast on mochi or soba noodles; lightly toasted, they burst with deep, smoky, nutty flavour. In TCM, black sesame isn't a garnish but a "jing tonic" (kidney essence) that practitioners recommend against early signs of ageing and greying hair.

What's in it: calcium in the hull

When vegans or people with lactose intolerance look for plant foods that contain calcium, black sesame comes up again and again:

• The fat: about 50% of the seed is fat, mostly unsaturated fatty acids, including oleic acid.
• Calcium: unhulled (!) black sesame contains about 800 mg of calcium per 100 grams. For comparison: low-fat quark and cow's milk contain around 120 mg.
• Iron and pigments: the black outer hull contains plant melanin pigments and iron.

What research looks at: the lignans

Sesamin and sesamolin

What sets sesame apart from other seeds is a specific group of plant compounds: the lignans sesamin and sesamolin. In lab and animal studies, sesamin increased the activity of liver enzymes involved in breaking down fat (beta-oxidation). Researchers are also studying whether sesame lignans slow the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

Jing and grey hair

In traditional Chinese medicine, "dryness" in the blood and a weak "kidney" (in a metaphysical sense) are seen as the cause of early hair loss and greying in your late thirties – and black sesame is the traditional food for it. That's a tradition, not something studies have shown. What is true: the black hull contains copper, magnesium and melanin pigments.

Important: grind it before you eat it

A common mistake: if you sprinkle whole black sesame seeds over salmon or sushi just for looks, many of them pass through your body whole, because their hard, fibrous hull stays intact – and with them the calcium. To get at the oily inside with its lignans, grind black sesame lightly in a coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar, or use ready-made black tahini (smooth sesame paste) as a rich spread or stirred into a warm tofu dish.