Oils
PEANUT OIL
Peanut oil, also known as groundnut oil or arachis oil, is a mild tasting vegetable oil derived from peanuts. The oil is available in refined, unrefined, cold pressed, and roasted varieties, the latter with a strong peanut flavor and aroma, analogous
It is often used in Chinese, South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, both for general cooking, and in the case of roasted oil, for added flavor. Peanut oil has a high smoke point relative to many other cooking oils, so is commonly used for frying foods. Its major component fatty acids are oleic acid(46.8% as olein), linoleic acid (33.4% as linolein), and palmitic acid (10.0% as palmitin). The oil also contains some stearic acid, arachidic acid,arachidonic acid, behenic acid, lignoceric acid and other fatty acids.
Antioxidants such as vitamin E are sometimes added, to improve the shelf life of the oil.
SESAME OIL
Sesame oil (also known as gingelly oil or til oil) is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. Besides being used as a cooking oil inSouth India, it is often used as a flavor enhancer in Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Korean, and Southeast Asian cuisine.
The oil from the nutrient rich seed is popular in alternative medicine – from traditional massages and treatments to the modern day. The traditional Indian medical practice of Ayurveda uses sesame oil to pacify stress related symptoms. Ongoing research also indicates that the rich presence of antioxidants and polyunsaturated fats in sesame oil could help control blood pressure.
The oil is popular in Asia and is also one of the earliest known crop-based oils, but world-wide mass modern production continues to be limited even today due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil.