Sesame Oil (Til Tel), the Classical Base
Ask which oil Ayurveda uses for massage and the answer, unless there is a reason to choose otherwise, is sesame. It is the default carrier in the classical texts, and the reason so many preparations are named taila.
- Botanical name
- Sesamum indicum
- Sanskrit / Hindi
- तिल तेल
- Part used
- Seed, cold pressed
- Known compounds
- Oleic and linoleic acids, Sesamin and sesamolin, Vitamin E fraction
What a taila actually is
The word taila means oil, and in Ayurvedic pharmacy it describes a specific process rather than just a bottle of oil. Herbs are decocted, the decoction is combined with the base oil and a herb paste, and the mixture is heated until the water has gone and the fat-soluble constituents have moved into the oil.
That process is why a medicated oil is not the same as oil with powder stirred into it. The herbs are cooked into the fat.
Why sesame specifically
Classical texts describe sesame oil as warming and penetrating, and place it first among oils for vata conditions, the group that covers dryness, stiffness and cold-natured pain. It also tolerates the prolonged heating a taila preparation requires.
Sesamin and sesamolin, lignans found in the seed, contribute to the oil's relative stability.
What it is blended with
Sesame on its own is heavy and slow to absorb. In Dr. Granny's Magic it is blended with mustard and yellow mustard oil, black seed oil, clove oil, eucalyptus oil and an Ayurvedic hot-spice oil, which together keep the finished oil light enough to absorb without leaving a film and add the warming character the formula is built around.
Mustard oil in particular is not a filler here. Allyl isothiocyanate, the compound responsible for its bite, produces the warming sensation that Indian households have reached for over stiff limbs for generations.
Questions about Til tel
Why does Ayurveda use sesame oil for massage?
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The classical texts describe it as warming and penetrating and place it first among oils for vata conditions, which cover stiffness and dryness. It also withstands the long heating that making a medicated oil requires.
What is a taila?
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A taila is a medicated oil made by cooking herb decoction and herb paste into a base oil until the water is driven off. The herbs are processed into the oil rather than mixed into it.
Is til tel the same as the sesame oil used for cooking?
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The base is the same plant oil. A medicated til tel has then been processed with herbs, which cooking oil has not.
Where this sits in the bottle
Sesame Oil (Til Tel)is one entry in the 25-herb blend in Dr. Granny's Magic Pain Relief Oil, carried in a base of sesame, mustard, yellow mustard, black seed, clove and eucalyptus oils for external massage use.
Other ingredients
Ayurvedic product. For external use only. Not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.