Sesame, also known as beniseed, is one of several minor oilseeds valued for their unique properties, as well as their nutritional and health benefits. 
 

Of major interest in sesame is its high oil content, ranging from 42–56%. Sesame oil is highly resistant to oxidation due to the presence of antioxidants such as sesamol and semamolin, making it stable upon exposure to oxygen, heat, and light.

Sesame oil production involves the following unit operations:
1. Cleaning: Processing of oil from sesame seeds begins with cleaning to remove dirt and other impurities.
2. Flaking: This can be done using a flaking machine or manually by applying pressure to reduce the seeds to flakes. Flaking exposes cell tissues and increases
the surface area, facilitating subsequent oil extraction.
3. Conditioning: During conditioning, the seeds are softened by the addition of warm water or cooking to raise the moisture content to about 7% and the temperature to 47–50°C. Conditioning enhances oil extraction, quality, and yield.
4. Pressing: This is the oil extraction process and is done using a screw oil press through either a single press or double press. Pressing results in two products: crude sesame oil and cake. For maximum oil extraction, the cake, which still contains about 8–10% oil, is subjected to solvent extraction to recover more oil or sold as animal feed.
5. Filtering: The resulting crude sesame oil is filtered to remove impurities, which may be present, to obtain pure sesame oil.
 

Pure sesame oil can be refined to improve its color, taste, and smell through degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization.