Sesamum radiatum

Use

Culinary

The seeds are eaten whole, made into a paste, ground into a powder, or pressed for a high-quality oil. The leaves can be eaten fresh or cooked and are used in Sub-Saharan Africa as a leaf vegetable. The leaves are mucilaginous in texture when cooked. The shoots can also be eaten and are used in soups and porridge.

Medicinally

The leaves are also used medicinally as a laxative, an antidote to scorpion venom and to treat sprains and ease childbirth. The stem and bark have also been noted for their anti-bacterial properties.

Cultivation

This plant is an annual herb growing up to 1.2 to 1.5 metres (3 ft 11 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall. The leaves are opposite, or toward the top of the plant, alternately arranged. The leaves are lance-shaped to oval and up to 12 centimetres (5 in) long. They may be smooth-edged or serrated. Flowers occur singly in the leaf axils. They are pink to purple in color, sometimes white, and somewhat bell-shaped. They measure up to 5 centimetres (2 in) long. The fruit is a capsule up to 3.5 centimetres (1+3⁄8 in) long which contains seeds roughly 3 millimetres (15⁄128 in) long.

This plant grows wild in savanna and other habitat types. It is also a weed of fields and homesteads. It can grow on poor, rocky soils and it flowers even through drought conditions. When cultivated the plant yields 5 to 6 metric tons (5.5 to 6.6 short tons) of leaves per hectare.

This plant is vulnerable to the leaf spot disease Cercospora sesami. It is also attacked by hawk moths (Sphingidae), the moth Antigastra catalaunalis, and the vegetable bug Nezara viridula.