An overview of the emerging trends of the Salicornia L. genus as a sustainable crop

Salicornia is a genus of plants that are able to grow in saline conditions and that are known as “halophytes”. Moreover, this species has plenty of other industrial and ecological applications as a sustainable crop. Currently, there are many publications on plants with a high economic value, but few are related to the applications of high salt-tolerant plants as an important source for the food, pharmacy, bioenergy and ecology sectors. Aspects such as morphology, microstructure-composition, salt-adaptation mechanism are discussed to improve our understanding of these elements with regard to scale its production while its commercial exploitation depends on better knowledge of its structure and composition. A summary of its biomass, seeds, oil and ethanol yields is then presented to highlight its profitability as a sustainable crop. Furthermore, ecological applications in aquaculture and phytoremediation are also discussed, while applications in food, pharmacy, ecology, chemical and cosmetic sectors are also presented. In this review, Salicornia stands out in the fields of food and pharmacy due to its bioactive compounds which have been reported to have antioxidative and anti-inflammatory health benefits as well as immunomodulatory activities, and can also be used as secondary metabolites in pharmaceutics or as nutraceutics in food, with high commercial and culinary value as salt substitute due to its protective effect on vascular dysfunction and hypertension. The second aspect that is emphasized is its seed oil content, with a 30 % edible oil rich in linoleic, oleic, palmitic and stearic acids, along with a high protein content. It is also mentioned that Salicornia's seed oil and biomass have been reported as good sources for biofuel and bioethanol production. Chemically, some studies have reported antipathogenic effects among others from Salicornia nanoparticles. Recommendations on how to increase its growth through the association of plant growth promoting bacteria, new application trends, the difficulties that need to be overcome with a proposal study cost and benefits of Salicornia farm associated with aquaculture as well as the main nutritional and/or productivity effects based on the cultivation methods, are discussed.