Leftover sesame and perilla seed pulp may guard liver cells
Medicinal Plants
The sesame seeds on your spice rack and the perilla leaves in your garden salad both leave behind a pressed meal that usually gets tossed, and this research suggests that waste has real biological value worth saving instead of composting.
After sesame and perilla seeds are pressed for oil, the leftover meal is usually thrown away or used as low-value animal feed. Researchers took extracts from that leftover meal and tested them on liver cells overloaded with fat, finding the extracts reduced the fat buildup that normally damages the cells. That points to the discarded seed meal as a potential source for future liver-health supplements rather than a waste product.
Key Findings
Extracts from sesame and perilla seed meal reduced lipid accumulation in hepatocytes exposed to free fatty acids, a lab model of fatty liver disease
Both seed meals showed measurable antioxidant activity alongside their effect on fat buildup in liver cells
The protective effects were observed using meal left over from oil pressing, a byproduct normally discarded or used as low-grade feed
chevron_right Technical Summary
Byproducts left over from pressing sesame and perilla seeds for oil contain compounds that protected liver cells in the lab from fat buildup, hinting at a cheap way to repurpose seed waste into a tool against fatty liver disease.
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Sesame is a plant in the genus Sesamum, also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods. World production in 2024 was 6.7 million tonn...