Health Benefits of Sesame Oil on Hypertension and Atherosclerosis

Hypertension and atherosclerosis are the major contributors of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Drug therapy alone may not be sufficient enough to treat either the hypertension or atherosclerosis without the involvement of any dietary management. Dietary intervention thus becomes an integral part in course of the cardiovascular disease therapy. Moreover, the long term treatment with medications for these chronic diseases results in several adversarial side effects. Therefore it is wise to look for any alternative measure using dietary components with least side effects as a complimentary to minimize the therapeutic costs and other undesired effects. In that course the dietary management by using several foods enriched with natural antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids are gaining much importance in preventing as well as treating the hypertension or atherosclerosis. Olive oil from the “Mediterranean diet” has already gained much attraction due to its cardiovascular health benefits. In this mini review, we extended the focus on the benefits of Sesame oil which is also known as Gingelly or Til oil in India and frequently used for daily uses.