Batis maritima (Saltwort/Beachwort): a nutritious, halophytic, seed bearings, perennial shrub for cultivation and recovery of otherwise unproductive agricultural land affected by salinity

To date, this study constitutes the first scientific investigation into the elucidation of the chemical/physical and nutritional composition and characteristics of the seed of Batis maritima (Saltwort or Beachwort) a C3 perennial, dioecious, high seed bearing, halophytic succulent shrub commonly habitating salt-marshes and salt-flats worldwide. It was found that the small (<1.00 mm and <0.5 mg) lenticular shaped oil seed was both a rich source of nutritionally important protein as well as oil (17.3 and 25.0%, respectively). Of the total seed protein, 87.3% was found to be composed of a unique, highly soluble globulin storage protein rich in such essential amino acids as lysine and methionine. Little trypsin inhibitor activity was detected in this protein rich seed. The oil fraction of the seed was found to be both of high quality as well as highly nutritious, based upon it possessing one of the highest degrees of unsaturation (i.e., circa 93%) of any oil studied. Its fatty acid profile of: C16:0, 5.5%, C16:1, 1.1%, C18:0, 1.2%, C18:1, 17.8%, C18:2, 73.0% and C18:3, 1.4% makes it almost identical to that of safflower oil and its high C18:2 an important essential precursor in humans for longer chain fatty acids like arachidonic acid. Although it has such a highly desirable unsaturated fatty acid profile and triglyceride profile comparable to safflower, it is much richer in lipid soluble antioxidants such as alpha,delta,gamma- tocopherols (526.4, 117.5 and 27.4 mg/kg oil, respectively) which would give added oxidative stability to this oil. Carbohydrate was found to be the single most abundant component within the seed characterized by an extremely small uni-modal size distribution of starch granules of <1.19 micrometer (one of the smallest starch granule sizes known). Such extremely small starch granules could provide unique functional properties in such food and non-food applications as food thickeners, paper coatings, laundry starch, dusting powders, cosmetics, fat replacers, thickeners in the printing of textiles and biodegradable plastics.