The contents of sesamol and related lignans in sesame, tahina and halva as determined by a newly developed polarographic and stripping voltametric analysis

Abstract

The contents of antioxidant lignans (Sesamol) in sesame, commercial formulations of tahina and halva, which are processed tahina foods, were determined by Differential Pulse Polarography (DPP) with a capillary hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). A platinum wire was used as the counter electrode and Ag/AgCl was the reference electrode. Samples have been analyzed by standard addition procedures and found to be quantitative (p<0.01). Due to the fact that sesamo is an oil-soluble phenolic compound, it was found in the oil levels of sesame, tahina and halvas. Sesame samples contained 51.05-56.46 % in oil whereas tahina samples contained 52.12-53.79 % in oil. The oil percentage of plain halva was found to be 28.79 - 30.13 % (p<0.01). Phenolic lignan sesamol in sesame was 0.26-0.32 mg/100g oil, whereas the sesamol in tahina was 10.98-12.33 mg/100g oil. The sesamol in commercial plain halva samples and the open marketed plain halva samples contained 8.24-9.12 mg/100g oil and 4.97 mg sesamol /100g oil, respectively (R-2=0.9999) (p<0.01). The proposed Differential Pulse Polarographic (DPP) method is a rapid, reproducible procedure for the simultaneous determination of phenolic lignans in sesame and food products with sesame. It provides an adequate, sensitive, quantitative detection of these nutraceuticals in the commercial food industry.