Deep dive into the food potential of Salicornia bigelovii by comparing its nutritional value between its growth stages and with freshwater-based crops.

BACKGROUND: Halophytes are emerging as promising crops to foster food security in salt-affected areas, gaining increasing interest in their nutritional profile necessary to leverage their value proposition as a food commodity. This study compares the nutritional properties of Salicornia bigelovii tips at early and late vegetative stage (VS), and explores their culinary potential, thereby leveraging the crop's utility and benchmarking it against freshwater-based crops. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed for 11 S. bigelovii genotypes to explore the shifts in the association among nutritional parameters between early and late VS and to identify genotypes with good nutritional profile. RESULTS: Salicornia bigelovii tips harvested from an early and late VS were characterized by rich nutritional profile compared to spinach and asparagus, highlighting their value as food crops. The early VS was richer mainly in vitamins (vitamin C and D) and had a higher essential amino acids content, as well as a lower minerals content, especially Na. The late VS increased its nutritional quality in terms of total dietary fiber, carbohydrates, protein content, ash content, minerals, vitamin B3 and richer composition of amino acids. PCA revealed a more spread-out pattern for the early VS compared to a more compact cluster of the traits for the late VS. Genotypes ICBA-10 and ICBA-26 at the early VS and ICBA-9 at the late VS distinguished with a potentially favorable nutritional profile. Salicornia bigelovii tips exhibited strong culinary versatility. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate distinct nutritional profiles between the early and late VS of S. bigelovii, providing opportunities to tailor harvest timing for different food applications that could support healthy dietary patterns and diverse lifestyles in the face of emerging global salinity challenges. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.