Environmental and Economical Opportunities for the Valorisation of the Genus Atriplex: New Insights - Crop Improvement: New Approaches and Modern Techniques - page 436

Chapter 16
Environmental and Economical Opportunities
for the Valorisation of the Genus Atriplex :
New Insights
Maali Benzarti, Kilani Ben Rejeb, Ahmed Debez and Chedly Abdelly
Abstract Atriplex species are members of the Chenopodiaceae. There are more
than 400 species growing naturally in arid and semi arid regions of the world, most
of which are highly tolerant to drought and salt. Atriplex species contain high levels
of protein and economically valuable compounds. These characteristics could make
Atriplex a suitable food for livestock in saline or arid/ semi-arid area. Furthermore,
Atriplex can take up salt ions from saline soil and sequester it into the salt glands at
the leaf surface. This trait is of high significance since it allows them to be used
for revegetation of saline or arid/semi-arid lands. Atriplex species have also been
used for cloning some genes related to drought and salt tolerance. This review is a
new contribution that updates knowledge on the ecological and socio-economical
potential of some plant genus Atriplex .
Introduction
Many arid and semi-arid regions in the world have soils and water resources that are
too saline for most of the common conventional crop systems (Pitman and Lauchli
2002 ). Halophytes are plants that have been naturally selected in saline environ-
ments and are distinguishable from glycophytes by their capacity to cope with ex-