A study of the natural properties of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds and their effect on some quality characteristics of locally prepared tahini

Abstract

This research was conducted in the Department of Food science, Faculty of Agriculture, Damascus University in collaboration with Department of Food Biotechnology, National Commission for Biotechnology, for the aim of comparing between Sesame seeds and Sunflowers seeds tahini to investigate if the sunflower seeds could be used as a whole or partial alternative in the production of the tahini, where the seeds of sunflower and sesame seeds from the local market were tested for natural, chemical and microbial properties.

It was found that there was a difference in the natural characteristics between the two types of seeds, which were higher in sunflower (114.115g, 435.250ml, 0.2621g/ml, and 1.0871%) than in sesame (0.689g, 0.522ml, 7.1g/ml, and 3.71%) respectively, and the results of chemical analysis showed that the percentage of ash in sesame (5.824%) was higher than in sunflower seeds (4.0488%), as well as fat (27.4%) was higher in sesame seed than in sunflower (16.125%) while  sunflower seeds were higher in their content of Fibers, protein and carbohydrates (27.4%, 0.351%, and 40.327%) respectively compared to (2.304%, 20.4%, and 34.83%) respectively in sesame. The moisture content of the two types of seeds was almost identical. Besides the results of microbial analysis where the two types of seeds were completely free of aflatoxins.

Sesame tahini 100%, sunflower tahini 100%, and the mix ratios of (20, 40, 60, 80%) were manufactured, with chemical and microbial tests. The chemical analysis showed that sunflower tahini 100% moisture content of (3.730%) was the highest, where tahini (sesame 80% and sunflower 20%) was the highest in ash content with (3.188%), and tahini (sesame 80% and sunflower 20%) was the highest of fat content with (35.368%), beside tahini (sesame 20% and sunflower 80%) was the highest of fiber content with (5.868%) while sunflower tahini 100% and tahini (sesame 60% and sunflower 40%) was the highest of carbohydrate content with (6.121%) (5.776%) respectively, and the tahini of (sesame 40% and sunflower 60%) was the highest in protein content of (65.547%). While the microbial analysis showed that all types of tahini were completely free of Salmonella SP.