Sampath Parthasarathy, PhD, MBA, Professor at the College of Medicine, UCF and Florida Hospital Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences talks about the benefits of sesame oil.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News in October 2018.
First we’re going to talk about the sesame oil for heart disease. Tell me about the study, what were you looking at?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Well, we are looking at the ability of sesame oil not only to cure existing diseases but also to prevent the disease itself, using mouse models of atherosclerosis The study has been done in my laboratory for the last eight to ten years.
What is the study about sesame oil and heart disease, what are you looking at?
Dr. Parthasarathy: We are looking at the ability of sesame oil to influence or cure existing heart disease, but also its ability or potential to prevent the disease itself. Its use is intended both for primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerosis which is a major form of cardiovascular disease. The study started about ten years back in my laboratory when another researcher found that in humans the consumption of the sesame oil decreased blood pressure and also decreased the use of medication in treating blood pressure. A major nutritional society called me and asked me my intake on how that could be happening. We felt the oil itself may not have such property, but component associated with the oil may have such properties. When we talk about oil or cooking oils there are several different processes that go in preparing the oil. Sesame oil is prepared by a process called cold press they take the sesame seed and literally squeeze the contents of the oil out. That oil is equivalent to, for example, what’s in olive oil. In other words it is still unrefined, it has components beyond oil. To give a proper analogy, it’s like George Foreman’s grill, it just squeezed the oil out of it. We felt the component associated with the oil may have a lot more potential as preventing blood pressure or preventing heart disease so on and so forth. In the initial studies, we focused on the whole sesame oil. In short, it had remarkable ability to decrease atherosclerosis using most models of atherosclerosis. The extent to which sesame oil prevented atherosclerosis was over eighty percent, and it was stunning because even the best pharmaceutical agents do not go that far in decreasing cholesterol or in decreasing atherosclerosis. We repeated the studies several times, and we are pretty confident that the sesame oil had a remarkable ability to influence blood fat as well as atherosclerosis. That prompted us to look at what could be present in sesame oil that may have such beneficial properties. Now to remove such ingredients normally from any oil requires very tedious laboratory procedures that we call saponification. You practically digest the oil out and remove it to approach or to get the other component. When we talk about liters and gallons of such oil, it’s impractical because you end up with so much soap and other ingredients it’s physically difficult to separate those ingredients. Also we do not know at this point how such processes affect the ingredients that are associated with sesame oil. In the initial study itself, we found a very simple method, so simple that it is so fascinating to us. Oil is lighter than water and we felt many of the components could be easily separated in to the water simply by partitioning those ingredients in to the water. Literally what it involves is shaking of the oil with water and removing the water component and processing it for using in our studies. We did similar or we did such a process on obtaining what we call the aqua extract or sesame oil aqua extract (sesame oil aqueous extract), SOAE as we call it and used that. We mixed that with normal high fat chow and fed them to the mice and again we observed that the aqua water soluble ingredients themselves decreased atherosclerosis. What was exciting for us at this point was while the whole oil decreased cholesterol as well as prevented the atherosclerosis the extract improved the atherosclerosis without any effect on the blood fat. This is the first time anybody has observed the plasma of the blood fat may have little or no or some bearing on the whole atherosclerosis process. This also had a severe implication, positive implication that when you consume oil you bring a lot of fat and fat brings calories. So, it might not work for everybody. And in addition, you bring so much fat in to their food it is difficult to control energy intake, bad weight, weight gain obesity, those type of things. The ability to use the extract that doesn’t have the fat itself had attraction. We went further to see how much sesame oil on this extract could have its beneficial effect. At this point, many investigators from Harvard and other places they said inflammation to be an important component of this atherosclerotic process. So when we looked at the inflammatory markers in the animals that were treated with sesame oil or with this extract, we found many pro-inflammatory markers were remarkably reduced in those animals. Dr. Chandrakala in my laboratory performed many studies in the document that these components of the extract as well as the whole extract itself had the ability to decrease inflammatory marker generation from cells that are known to produce these markers. At this point we developed the hypothesis that one of the major pathways by which sesame oil or this extract could control atherosclerosis might be related to their abilities to decrease inflammation. The next step was to see whether controlling inflammation before we initiated the atherosclerotic process could have a beneficial effect. So, we fed animals for one month with this aqua extract of sesame oil and stopped feeding the extract after one month, followed by the introduction of high fat. Again we observed that the pretreatment decreased the subsequent development of atherosclerosis. To my knowledge no such studies_ are available either in animals or in humans because we do not know in humans when the disease process starts. But it gives a very good opportunity of controlling inflammation in the early ages might be an important way to stop or delay any potential future diseases. At this point, a couple of our laboratory scientists also tried to see what is in this extract that could be beneficial using the equipment like Liquid chromatographay-high resolution mass spectrometry. We separated SOAE components, and we ended up with over thirty different chemicals. But when Dr.Chandrakala tested these ingredients on the ability to prevent inflammation marker generation by the same formative cells, we grouped about eight to ten compounds that had potential anti-inflammatory agent and anti-inflammatory properties. The whole process was so exciting because inflammation is the basis for many chronic diseases, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, even Alzheimer’s. If inflammation could be controlled by SOAE in atherosclerosis not only theat could be beneficial in relation to cardiovascular diseases, but also in other potential chronic inflammatory diseases. That is what our current focus is. Mr. Rohr (M.D, Ph.D student) has initiated a human study where we plan to give this sesame extract to subjects who have Crohn’s disease to see whether that inflammatory markers could be reduced. At this point, one of the major treatments for Crohn’s disease is to remove from the blood a molecule called tumor necrosis factor alpha. Dr. Chandrakala in our laboratory has demonstrated that the extract has the ability to reduce the TNF alpha. So if TNF alpha reduction could afford a benefit to Crohn’s disease subjects it will be a remarkable nutritional means of controlling Crohn’s disease. There is no more need for harsh chemicals, there is no need for sustained therapy with harsh chemicals. At the same time sesame oil, not cooking oil on the components, are just component from sesame oil. Even children could benefit in consuming such a product. This will have long term benefit.
Going back to the heart disease do you know if there are certain components within the sesame oil, do you have the name of those components?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Yes. The sesame oil is notorious for having many different components and some of them or many of them are derived from a molecule called sesamol. That component also plays a major role in medicinal drugs. But the extract contains very little or no of that product, but on the other hand there are many products that are reminiscent of simple full ingredients. One of them is a group of components that we call methoxy phenols these inhibit many processes particularly inflammatory response from monocyte and macrophages. Inflammation at this point is considered synonymous with arthritic stress. One of the major enzymes in the body that is even perhaps involved in atherosclerotic process is called myeloperoxidation. Many of these phenolic components are inhibitors of this myeloperoxidase reaction. It is not just one compound it’s a cluster of compounds. This also goes to prove the whole might be better than individual. Some of the individual compounds may be very important. That is why we identify eight such components and tested that individually as well as a group and demonstrated that as a group they have very powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Even against bacteria derived lipopolysaccharide bacterial toxin. At the same time, my laboratory pioneered in the concept of what we call oxidized LDL which is supposed to be a key process in atherosclerosis. So, oxidation is controlled that it’s also going to have a beneficial effect on the overall atherosclerotic process. The point is it may not be just a one magic bullet that’s residing in sesame oil, but a group of components which may be associated with this oil during its processing. That is why it’s important that when we talk about oil in nutrition or in Home Foods or Publix or any other food sellers it’s important to look at whether it is freshly processed or cold processed or refined material. The refining process might alter or eliminate some of those ingredients that are associated with whole oil.
So what should people look for then when they go to the grocery store?
Dr. Parthasarathy: At this point because these are laboratory studies we are mandated to use the sesame oil that is very similar to the oil that is approved by FDA and stored in the FDA data vault. On the other kind, there are a number of such oils available in the market. But even the processes are different. Some culture they use that sesame, and the extract is really dark in color because they are roasted sesame seeds. On the other kind, other cultures use fresh sesame seed, and they use the process, the cold process. At this point, the science has not tested for these individual oils or other various other oils that may have similar properties such as virgin olive oil. The ingredients might be different but many of these oils have a great potential to affect many diseases, including atherosclerotic or Crohn’s diseases. When we refine these oils we lose those ingredients. The consumer likes to see very clear, nice shiny products on the shelf. But on the other kind if something cloudy or has other products floating around maybe they aren’t the best thing to focus on. My studies have adding on nutrition for processing. Various diseases, inflammatory diseases, targeting from childhood to elderly people. We did a test study on this extract and about ninety percent (using multiple subjects) of the subjects couldn’t tell the difference whether the product they consumed contained sesame oil extract or not. The extraction process allows us to use any beverage for extraction. For example, we can make lemonade and extract these molecules in to the lemonade. We even make ice cubes out of it and put it in soda so that the fizz doesn’t go out when extracting. We can concentrate this extract and put it in band-aids and many, many other products. The wide ability or a plethora of anti-inflammatory component in simple botanicals and nutritional supplement as well as our regular food that we consume is something that people have thought about for the last ten, fifteen years. But the science mandates you test them in a proper scientific manner and show their potential. We have done it using animals our next step is using humans and we have done as I mentioned taste and palatable studies. We are embarking on the closed clinical trials to see whether they will benefit. I wanted to solve many of these inflammatory markers that have limited life in the blood. You don’t have to do a ten year study to see whether they have an effect on these molecules. The study could be as little as one month or two months time. That is a big advantage for researchers. But when it comes to the clinical ground it is up to the clinicians and other people to establish efficacy, long term treatment, how much of sesame oil so on and so forth.
You mentioned they did a taste test with fifty people.
Dr. Parthasarathy: Yes.
And that was to determine whether or not they could tell the difference between the sesame oil?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Between a drink that contained sesame extract and the drink that didn’t contain the sesame extract. In the amount that we extracted eighty percent of the people couldn’t tell the difference between the control lemonade that we made and the lemonade that was prepared with sesame extract.
And that was the sesame, not the whole but the one you extracted.
Dr. Parthasarathy: That’s right. So there is no oil associated with the one so people cannot have the oily taste so it was an exciting study.
In the beginning you mentioned something about primary and then a secondary prevention. Can you go in to that a little bit?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Secondary prevention usually involves treating an existing disease with an agent that’s supposed to have an effect on the disease okay. The target is population that have already established disease. So, that our guidelines has to which subjects should you include which subjects you should exclude those type of things. That is the secondary prevention of curing the disease or decreasing the severity of the disease. The primary intervention is the goal of all medical schools and physicians and population scientists and nutritionists, exercise physiologists to how give positive modality that will delay the onset of any disease. That will completely prove the initiation of disease. That also reflects the wellbeing of a society of an individual, the basic health of an individual. That was our goal. If a drink or if a preparation coming from a nutritional supplement that doesn’t have much of a toxicity or other property. We do not know at this point whether how long one can take an amount of those things. That way the ideal situation where if the consumption of sesame extract or any other nutritional product could delay, and if that could be documented by measuring specific markers that are associated with the disease. Then it can have great benefit to the society. So that is our approach as scientists. Not only to teach humans, but to show that in those humans specific markers associated with the disease are effected or reduce so that the patient could extend that benefit to future benefiters.
What are the next steps coming out of this?
Dr. Parthasarathy: We already did also a pilot study with limited subjects, these are normal subjects.
Okay.
Dr. Parthasarathy: We showed the consumption of this extract produced that level of cell inflammation markers. That was a phenomenon finding for us because if normal subjects could be used to reduce inflammation then the next will be the subjects with some clinically established chronic inflammation. That’s what prompted us to go to the Crohn’s disease. I’m hoping because of the studies of limited duration in the next two or three months, we will have indication of how we effected by these extract teas in an actual subject. From that point it is really clear that extract may contain ingredient that would have beneficial effect on humans. But at the same time, we are cognizant of the fact that sesame oil itself may not be the magic bullet. There are other plants or plant materials that have equally good or even better anti-inflammatory molecules. For example, we published a study using a plant called holy basil, the extract from the holy basil also had highly demonstrable anti-inflammatory effect. The humans or the normal population may have a variety of plant derived molecules or perhaps even animal derived molecules that may have the ability to not only prevent or decrease existing diseases or cure existing diseases but also may have beneficial effect on the long run in preventing diseases. I may not even be able to do those studies because it will be time consuming or a long time but it may have a similar effect or influencing effect on other scientists to see whether product derived from such plants or other materials could be used as therapeutic agents. But at this point, the regulations demand that any new molecules could be tested together with an existing currently acceptable pharmacological agent. That will be done only by clinicians in a clinical setting, treating patients with existing disease and supplementing with these molecules to see whether there is an added benefit. If there is an added benefit the future studies may also include testing these components alone. That is beyond a laboratory research capabilities but our hope is it will be taken as a positive step to study in humans what the effect of these molecules are not only in one disease but also in many diseases where inflammation is implicated. Inflammation could be beneficial also. One has to be careful we do not want to shut down the beneficial inflammative properties. Long term, the studies could offer enormous potential for affecting our immune and inflammative systems and depending on enrollment, nutrition all kinds of things people could take many of these components to treat existing disease as well as to prevent diseases.
Would there be any downsides to use sesame oil?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Yes. One, it might take a long time to demonstrate the dose and the effective relationship. For example, we use about thirty milliliters equal of sesame oil in our studies because the previously published studies used that amount. At this point, we had no idea how much of sesame oil is beneficial or how much of any other oil is beneficial. Second, as I mentioned inflammation could be good, inflammation is bad. Inflammation is the body’s response to an external stress or even an internal stress, so some of those inflammatory molecules are generated after an infection to fight infection. So there are a number of stages where inflammation molecules could actually cause some benefit. Many of the inflammation molecules are involved in the body’s response in building new blood vessels for example, or reacting to blood clots, for example. It may not be one true fix all so there’s need to study these types of molecules and do new cases to come to your general conclusion. But it is also a tentative potential benefit or hindrance. The benefit is when you identify several classes of components, also of molecules in this extract that gives an opportunity to study them individually and for pharmaceutical companies to tailor them so that the benefit could be extended tremendously so that the dose could be reduced. Also, by attaching various molecules or making them in to pharmaceutical preparation one may be able to choose the beneficial effects or improving the harmful effects of potential side effects. If there are eight components that are, for example, beneficial, in this extract it is up to the pharmaceutical company or up to the chemist to see how far they can stretch/alter these molecules so the beneficial effects could be found. So there is huge potential for benefit, at the same time one has to be cautious under what conditions inflammation could be beneficial. And whether we should tailor our thinking with that or not will depend on the individual situation. But on the other hand, inflammation is a major component of sepsis where people are exposed to unbelievable amount of bacterial toxins. There are short term advantages also. One can distinguish between immediate effect or short-term effect, also chronic diseases that take lifelong or a long time to develop. Their implications are it’s not a magic bullet one has to study it and one has to apply it depending on the acuteness or chronicness of the disease. Also different diseases carry different inflammatory components. If for making molecule in one disease it can be totally anti-inflammatory in another disease. We have also in the laboratory see such effects. It is important that the physician have such knowledgeable information on various diseases, and also the pharmacological company should be cognizant which diseases they are targeting and which molecule might be important for that. Again I want to emphasize the combination might be better than a single component. One has to be cognizant which of these molecules have which properties. One component may have a highly pro-anti-inflammatory effect and another component may have anti-inflammatory effect. So studying them individually as well as a group will have a lot of implication in chemistry, pharmacology and pharmacological sciences while nutritional scientist could benefit by mixing various of these ingredients and coming up with a cocktail, powerful anti-inflammatory cocktail. It may also have a great appeal for companies that make drinks or healthy drinks and energy drinks, all kinds of things the formulation, the different formulation. We are hoping our studies would lead to a variety of studies that will have great implications in chronic inflammation disease as well as other diseases.
So now going in to the trial, what are the parameters, what are you looking for, tell me about the trial.
Dr. Parthasarathy: This is a study focusing on Crohn’s disease. The university and the college of medicine is very interested in Crohn’s disease for a major reason that the state gave us sufficient funding to do laboratory studies. Not just my laboratory but many laboratories in UCF and also the way that seed money on doing clinical studies. We can do laboratory studies, but it’s important that we establish this efficacy in humans. As I mentioned Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the digestive system. It affects many people, the young, old and it is on the rise. In Florida, particularly, (people) have high incidence of Crohn’s disease. The etiology is still not known. Generally, it’s believed bacteria causes Crohn’s disease, but there are other indications say diet and other agents also could cause Crohn’s flair up. In our laboratory, we demonstrated that sesame oil, and its extract decrease a major inflammatory component called tumor necrosis factor alpha or TNF alpha. In Crohn’s subjects this molecule is elevated very high and current treatment, one of the many current treatment involves use of antibody to this TNF alpha to remove it from circulation. The subject has to take this shot of a product, and it’s expensive and it is proven but it targets one TNF alpha. There are other inflammatory molecules also that are elevated in the subject. We thought because of the ready available data of subjects who may have Crohn’s disease our interest in Crohn’s disease, our current funding from state, the UCF interest in Crohn’s all of this prompted to see whether this extract would benefit people with Crohn’s disease. So the inclusion criteria, as we call it, is a subject should have fluent diagnose of Crohn’s disease. They should not have other inflammatory component for example, smokers and others who have other risk of inflammation in their body. To recruit them and treat them with the extract they need to consume equivalent of thirty milliliters of sesame oil. It’s a very simple small vial they can just drink it. Looking at their inflammatory marker profile before we start the treatment and at the end of the treatment. There are laboratory agents that will detect the presence of these molecules in the blood of the subject. It requires us to give them the sample and draw blood before and after. And we believe the diet, specifically they need to refrain from a certain type of diet, for example fried food, which may cause inflammation. And give their blood and test whether there is some benefit or a benefit to these subjects in terms of their disease an particularly whether that the decrease in the Crohn’s disease severity or potential beneficial outcome on the study could be compared to the decrease in inflammatory molecules. That is our main goal, to see whether this reduces inflammatory markers in the blood and which direction correlates with our overall benefit the Crohn’s people say or see. Crohn’s affects many ways, the pain, the frequent trips to the bathroom and in general the quality of life. If these can be improved there is a very important guideline for studying the nutritional way to prevent the disease or to manage Crohn’s disease. That is what the trial is about Michael is heading the study and we are requesting participation from not only the local community but also anybody associated with UCF, it has some nice brochures. There are some community physicians who are advising our recruitment. Hopefully, we will have enough subjects so that we can statistically demonstrate that the markers of inflammation are down and whether the subjects get any health benefits out of it.
When do you start the trial?
Dr. Parthasarathy: We have already the approval from UCF because any human study has to be approved by the institutional review board. We have the rule on the study. We are currently in the process of recruitment. We have made flyers. We have made other charts and other things that are displayed in various parts of the university as well as our community physicians including the Jewish Center in Orlando. All of these other people have started calling us, and Michael is keeping track of them. Once we reach the target number or once we reach a significant number the preparation of the extract will commence and we’ll contact the participants to come here. And we will explain the study, get their consent and distribute their brochures and draw the blood and then follow this.
And the supplements you guys are making in the laboratory?
Dr. Parthasarathy: We have a human laboratory that doesn’t have the laboratory chemicals because we are also mandated to prepare in a healthy environment or in an established environment so to be prepared not with the laboratory agent and chemicals that you see but with the human study in mind so it will prepared in this trial conditions.
What would you say sesame oil, the study that you guys are doing both for heart disease and Crohn’s, what would you say that would mean to somebody that has heart disease or has Crohn’s?
Dr. Parthasarathy: For those who have heart disease this could provide an important alternative to chemicals like statin that have performed excellent in the last thirty, forty years but do have some side effects. There are also newer treatment for heart disease. We call it PCSK9 inhibitors, which decrease cholesterol a lot. Many of the current heart diseases medication target reducing cholesterol as their primary means of preventing heart disease. It is proven beyond doubt lowering cholesterol have a great impact on heart disease. At the same time, the sesame oil extract as well as other plant extracts have anti-inflammatory properties that target inflammation as their primary target. There is no reduction in cholesterol. The combination of both for people who have heart disease may be even more beneficial than taking just the drug alone. Conversely those who are not readily accepting statins and other drugs. For example, people with muscle problems or young children who have high cholesterol there’s not that much opportunities or possibilities in terms of drug therapy. They might benefit from taking dietary supplements or sesame extract or any of those because they do not affect those uses of harsh chemicals but can have great beneficial effect in controlling inflammation. So it may be a supplement or added beneficial to people who are elderly taking those drugs or it also might be beneficial in people who have an adverse reaction to those drugs or who cannot take such drugs, young children and young adults.
Anything else you would like to add?
Dr. Parthasarathy: Again, the sciences do not dare because there are thousands and thousands of plants. We have hardly touched the tip of the plant kingdom. Sesame oil I am more on it because my interest and also it’s commonly used. Oil has for four thousand years, it’s been used in many, many different cultures, and no one has reported a side effect other than any oil when you consume in the excess you have intestinal problems, you will have a lot of calories coming in but it’s extract could kind of a wide or compensate for the intake of such large amounts of oil or any specific long term affect. Or even simple taste wise, an extract can be compared to many popular drinks and can be taken. I’m seeing this as a means of influencing inflammation in acute and chronic situation by a simple means. By incorporating in to the common products that we routinely use, creating products that will incorporate these anti-inflammatory agents. Sooner or later one can add other ingredients to this extract for example, as I mentioned holy basil. There are many, many different things, grape extract, all kinds of things. People could have a meaningful dietary supplement or dietary regime with their light whole sesame oil. In fact, I made a product yesterday that had sesame oil salad dressing. One can incorporate in any day like at home and make products. That is what I see as an advantage. From the kitchen to the clinic, that is my message. If kitchen is beneficial some day you may not even need to the clinic. You may be feeling good. This is beneficial for Alzheimer’s, which also have a great inflammatory component. The answer to Alzheimer’s is coming down and down and down. Even through elderly people, they have Alzheimer’s that can be detected by CT scanning and other technology. Alzheimer’s starts much earlier in life, and if inflammation or preventing inflammation could have that benefit. Families that have Alzheimer’s they could easily control the inflammation and perhaps would see a benefit in neurological disease as well. Again inflammation is the common threat and a simple dietary product could influence.
END OF INTERVIEW
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