Ethnobotany, nutritional traits, and healthy properties of some halophytes used as greens in the Mediterranean Basin

Abstract

The Mediterranean basin is extraordinarily rich in wild edible species including halophytes, which grow on shoreline, while some species, typically of the hinterland, grow well under saline conditions anyway. This chapter aims to describe ethnobotany, chemical composition, and healthy properties of some most important edible halophyte species of the Mediterranean Basin, in order to highlight their potential key role in human diet and utilization. The ancient use of wild halophyte species for both food and ethnomedicinal purposes suggests high potentialities for the halophytes of the Mediterranean Basin, translating in an exploitation by food industry toward the production of novel products with functional and health beneficial properties. However, further research is needed regarding several aspects such as the evaluation of several ecotypes for each species and different growing techniques, the improvement of ecotypes through breeding programs, the assessment of the nutritional traits, clinical trials to identify the mechanisms of human health effects, and the optimal consumption on a daily basis, both to determine the daily intake of healthy compounds and to exclude possible toxicity effects. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approach is necessary for valorizing halophytes in the Mediterranean Basin, highlighting the great importance of the ethnobotany.