Economic Uses of Salt-Tolerant Plants

Abstract

Climate change is likely to affect the ability of world agricultural systems to provide food, fibre, and fuel for the growing world population, especially since the area of salinised land will increase. However, as few species of plants (less than 1% of all plant species) can tolerate saline soils, we believe it is important to evaluate their potential as crops for salinised soils. We have analysed the economic and potential economic uses of plants that are listed in the database eHALOPH, including the most tolerant species, halophytes. For nine main categories of economic value, we found a total of 1365 uses amongst all species listed in eHALOPH as of July 2022; this number reduced to 918 amongst halophytes. We did not find any obvious differences in rankings between the more tolerant halophytes and the whole group of salt-tolerant plants, where the order of use was medical, followed by forage, traditional medicine, food and drink, fuel, fuelwood, and bioenergy. While many species are potentially important as crops, the effects of salt concentration on their uses are much less well documented. Increasing salt concentration can increase, decrease, or have no effect on the concentration of antioxidants found in different species, but there is little evidence on the effect of salinity on potential yield (the product of concentration and biomass). The effect of salinity on forage quality again varies with species, often being reduced, but the overall consequences for livestock production have rarely been evaluated. Salt-tolerant plants have potential uses in the bioremediation of degraded land (including revegetation, phytoremediation, and extraction of NaCl) as well as sources of biofuels, although any use of saline water for the sustainable irrigation of salt-tolerant crops must be viewed with extreme caution.

Evaluating Growth and Physiological Responses of a Medicinal Plant Phyla nodiflora to Salinity

“…Although the shoot biomass was sharply decreased by 200 and 400 mM NaCl, the shoots still grew with the formation of new shoots and leaves (Figure S2). This result indicated that P. nodiflora had a tolerance to high salinity and could be considered as a salt-tolerant plant that could become a useful plant material for studies on salt tolerance mechanisms [4].…”

“…Although the shoot biomass was sharply decreased by 200 and 400 mM NaCl, the shoots still grew with the formation of new shoots and leaves (Figure S2). This result indicated that P. nodiflora had a tolerance to high salinity and could be considered as a salt-tolerant plant that could become a useful plant material for studies on salt tolerance mechanisms [4]. In addition, it is proposed that salt-tolerant plants with potential uses for medicine, forage, essential oils, and biofuels can be developed for saline agriculture because the biomass reduction is not always proportional to their quality [22,23].…”

“…Thus, both improving the salt tolerance of crops and developing alternative plants as new crops are considered to be potentially effective solutions for a sustainable agriculture on saltaffected areas (also referred as saline agriculture) [2]. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive understanding of salt tolerance mechanisms of salt-tolerant plants that can grow under high saline conditions (equivalent to above 80 mM NaCl) is required [3,4]. It is evidenced that salinity can inhibit the growth of plants by imposing two primary detrimental effects such as osmotic and ionic stress, in addition to disadvantageous changes in soil characteristics to plants [5,6].…”

Analisis Kualitas Garam Teknik Geomembran Di Desa Kolaka Kecamatan Tanjung Bunga Kabupaten Flores Timur, Nusa Tenggara Timur

“…Garam merupakan komoditas pokok dengan beragam kegunaan di berbagai industri seperti industri kimia, industri makanan, industri farmasi, dan industri perminyakan. Ini digunakan sebagai bumbu untuk membumbui makanan dan meningkatkan rasanya (Garcia-Caparros et al, 2023). Garam juga digunakan dalam penyimpanan zat yang berguna atau berbahaya di bawah tanah, seperti minyak bumi atau limbah nuklir.…”

Effect of Na, K and Ca Salts on Growth, Physiological Performance, Ion Accumulation and Mineral Nutrition of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

“…In this sense, salt-tolerant wild plant species are interesting models for studies aimed at uncovering plant salt adaptation mechanisms [ 1 , 2 ]. On the other hand, there is interest in studying the properties of salt-tolerant plants in relation to their possible practical uses [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”