Overview
Kheirati Rounizi and colleagues compared sesame seed, traditional Ardeh oil, cold-pressed virgin sesame oil, and refined sesame oil for fatty-acid composition, oil-quality metrics, heavy metals, and non-cancer risk estimates. This is routeable sesame-oil occurrence evidence because Table 5 reports arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), Zn, and Cu concentrations in three edible sesame-oil preparations on an mg/kg basis.
Key numbers
All heavy-metal concentrations below are from Table 5 and are reported as mg/kg. Values are mean +/- SD unless censored.
| Metal | Sesame seed | Ardeh oil | Virgin sesame oil | Refined sesame oil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| arsenic (As) | 0.042 +/- 0.02 | <0.000698 | 0.016 +/- 0.010 | 0.016 +/- 0.012 |
| lead (Pb) | 3.27 +/- 9.98 | 0.37 +/- 0.71 | 0.25 +/- 0.61 | 0.20 +/- 0.66 |
| cadmium (Cd) | 0.058 +/- 0.024 | 0.021 +/- 0.009 | 0.0027 +/- 0.0016 | 0.0123 +/- 0.0074 |
| Zn | 19.9 +/- 2.02 | <0.00028 | <0.00028 | 0.085 +/- 0.01 |
| Cu | 3.47 +/- 0.14 | 0.145 +/- 0.048 | 0.144 +/- 0.001 | 0.136 +/- 0.022 |
The authors report that heavy metals in sesame seed were generally much higher than in extracted oils, with a seed reduction pattern of Pb > Zn > Cu > Cd > As. Ardeh oil retained higher Pb, Cd, and Cu than the virgin and refined sesame-oil preparations, while refined oil had the highest Zn among the oil products. The paper states that As in all oil samples was below the Codex edible-oil limit cited by the authors (0.1 ppm), while Pb in all oil samples exceeded the cited 0.1 ppm limit.
Table 6 reports non-cancer risk estimates for consumption of 25 g edible oil/day by a 70 kg adult:
| Metric | Ardeh oil | Virgin sesame oil | Refined sesame oil |
|---|---|---|---|
| HI | 0.0448 | 0.0442 | 0.0442 |
| Highest HQ contributor | Pb, 0.0352 | Pb, 0.023 | Pb, 0.019 |
All reported HQ and HI values were below 1. The authors nevertheless recommend monitoring heavy-metal contaminants and imported sesame-seed quality before oil preparation because Pb exceeded the cited edible-oil limit in each oil type.
Methods (brief)
Ardeh oil was prepared by soaking sesame seed in water and salt, dehulling, roasting below 200 degrees C, grinding to sesame paste, mixing paste with water at a 10:2.2 ratio, and separating oil by centrifugation. Virgin sesame oil was produced by cold pressing at less than 40-45 degrees C and filtration. Refined sesame oil was obtained after neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization.
For metals, 0.5 g homogenized oil was digested with 5 mL 65% HNO3 and 2 mL 30% H2O2 using microwave digestion and diluted to 10 mL. Digests were analyzed by ICP-OES. Accuracy was checked with NIST SRM 1577b bovine liver; reported recoveries were 95.6% for As, 97.67% for Pb, 90.4% for Cd, 101.5% for Zn, and 98.81% for Cu. Analyses were done in triplicate.
Implications
Certification: This source supports sesame-oil occurrence routing for total As, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu. It is not US-market evidence and should remain jurisdiction-aware. The extraction-method comparison is useful for distinguishing traditional Ardeh oil, virgin cold-pressed sesame oil, and refined sesame oil when product form is known.
App: Route to sesame oil and the cooking-oils-other product bucket. Pb is the main issue in this source because Table 5 values remain above the cited 0.1 ppm edible-oil limit even after refining. Arsenic is total arsenic by ICP-OES and should not be treated as inorganic arsenic.
Courses: Useful for teaching processing effects, seed-to-oil contaminant partitioning, censored values, and the difference between a regulatory exceedance and a low non-cancer HI calculation.
Related evidence
- Sesame Oil
- Other cooking oils (canola, sunflower, coconut, avocado, sesame)
- Arsenic, Total
- Lead
- Cadmium
- Zinc
- Copper
- Testing
Update history
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