Valorisation of the edible halophyte Arthrocaulon macrostachyum in a biorefinery perspective

Arthrocaulon macrostachyum is an edible halophyte plant from the Amaranthaceae family growing in saltmarshes along the Mediterranean region. It has a balanced nutritional profile and health-promoting properties and can be cultivated in saline soils or irrigated with brackish water or saline aquaculture wastewaters. However, its cultivation generates nonedible parts that are usually wasted. Thus, this work aimed at the valorization of edible shoots and nonedible parts (roots, woody aerial parts) by determining the antioxidant capacity, metal chelation and total contents in phenolics and flavonoids of their aqueous extracts. The woody aerial parts were the most active on copper chelation (EC₅₀=2.0 mg/mL). In turn, the roots were most active towards DPPH radical (EC₅₀=5.9 mg/mL). Regarding iron chelation the roots and edible shoots had similar activities (EC₅₀=2.0 mg/mL). The roots showed the highest content in total phenolics (15.5 mg GAE/g DW) and flavonoids (13.8 mg QE/g DW). These results suggest that besides edible shoots, nonedible parts of A. macrostachyum can also be rich sources of antioxidants, phenolics and flavonoids, conferring on them a potential commercial value.

Funding Portuguese national funds from FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology through projects UIDB/04326/2020, UIDP/04326/2020 and LA/P/0101/2020; Partnership on Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) program supported by the European Union (HaloFarMs: PRIMA/0002/2019). MJR was supported by FCT program contract (UIDP/04326/2020), LC by FCT Scientific Employment Stimulus (CEECIND/00425/2017) and EF by FCT PhD grant (UI/BD/151301/2121).

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
16. November 2023