**2. Pharmacological Applications of Sesame**

#### *2.1. Anti-Inflammatory Activity*

Inflammation has been recorded way back several centuries ago (1500 BCE–600 CE) in the ancient Indian medicine called Ayurveda [21]. In the modern era, the term 'inflammation' comes from the Latin word inflammare that has a meaning of "to set on fire" [22]. Redness, heat, pain and swelling are the characterizations of inflammation and are induced by several factors such as frostbite, infection by pathogens, burns, chemical irritants, physical injuries, oxidative stress, ischemia, toxins and hypersensitivity [23,24]. Inflammation is part of the body's defense mechanism against pathogens or pathogen-associated molecular patterns [25]. Restoring, regenerating and repairing of the damaged tissues or organ hemeostasis through cellular network and signaling pathways are involved in the inflammation process. Conversely, severe acute inflammation or prolongation of inflammation may lead to pathology, organ failure, chronic inflammatory diseases, autoimmunity and death. The active

cellular components that are responsible for the processing of acute and chronic inflammation are monocytes/macrophages, endothelial cells, neutrophils, innate lymphoid cells, mucosal-associated invariant T cells, mast cells, natural killer cells, dendritic cells and other lower forms of T cells [26–29]. Tables 1–3 depicts the in vitro/in vivo models for the anti-inflammatory properties of sesame.
