Nutritional potential of a novel sea asparagus, Salicornia neei Lag., for human and animal diets

Abstract

The mineral profile and nutritional value of a novel variety of the Brazilian sea asparagus, Salicornia neei Lag., was characterized for feeding humans and animals using spectrophotometry. Plants of the F4 progeny of the purebred variety named BTH1 cultivated with saline shrimp farm effluent have high mineral content, particularly N, K, P, Ca, Fe and Mn. Daily intakes of 20, 200 and 5 g of dried shoots of BTH1-F4 could be added to and supplement human, sheep and commercial fish diets, respectively.

Keywords

• Health food
• Mineral nutrition
• Saline agriculture