| Already credited as
a powerful antioxidant and memory booster, Japanese scientists
now claim that sesame also acts to boost the body's natural sun
screening abilities.
The Suntory Health
Care Science Laboratory in Osaka discovered that sesamin, the
main antioxidant in sesame, lowered rat's susceptibility to
ultraviolet (UV) rays by significantly boosting their natural
UV defensives in the skin.
The team said that
a sesamin-rich diet would be useful in avoiding the kind of
damage done to human skin, such as skin cancers, caused by excessive
UV exposure.
One of the world's
oldest cultivated plants, sesame originated in Africa over 4,000
years ago, and was later exported to the far east where it is
widely used cooking and herbal remedies.
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