Salsola soda

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Salsola soda
Salsola soda Rignanese.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Genus: Salsola
Species:
S. soda
Binomial name
Salsola soda
L.

Salsola soda, more commonly known in English as opposite-leaved saltwort , oppositeleaf Russian thistle, or barilla plant, is a small (to 0.7 m tall), annual, succulent shrub that is native to the Mediterranean Basin. [1] It is a halophyte (a salt-tolerant plant) that typically grows in coastal regions and can be irrigated with salt water.

Contents

The plant has great historical importance as a source of soda ash, which was extracted from the ashes of Salsola soda and other saltwort plants. [2] Soda ash is one of the alkali substances that are crucial in glassmaking and soapmaking. The famed clarity of 16th-century cristallo glass from Murano and Venice depended upon the purity of "Levantine soda ash", [3] and the nature of this ingredient was kept secret. Spain had an enormous 18th-century industry that produced soda ash from the saltworts (barrilla in Spanish). [4] Soda ash is now known to be predominantly sodium carbonate. In 1807, Sir Humphry Davy isolated a metallic element from caustic soda; he named the new element "sodium" to indicate its relationship to "soda". Before "soda" was somewhat synonymous (in U.S. English) with soft drinks, the word referred to Salsola soda and other saltwort plants, and to soda ash.

While the era of farming for soda ash is long past, S. soda is still cultivated as a vegetable that enjoys considerable popularity in Italy and with gourmets around the world. Its common names in Italian include barba di frate, agretti, and liscari sativa (short: lischi or lischeri). Of its culinary value, Frances Mayes has written that "Spinach is the closest taste, but while agretti has the mineral sharpness of spinach, it tastes livelier, full of the energy of spring." [5]

Description

This annual, succulent plant can grow into small shrubs up to 0.7 m tall (sometimes called subshrubs). It has fleshy green leaves with either green or red stems. The tiny flowers develop from inflorescences that grow out of the base of the leaves near the stem. [6] [7]

Distribution

Salsola soda is native in Eurasia and North Africa. Historically, it was well known in Italy, Sicily, and Spain. In modern Europe, it is also found on the Atlantic coasts of France and Portugal and on the Black Sea coast. [8] It has become naturalized along the Pacific coast of North America, [9] and there is concern about its invasiveness in California's salt marshes. [10] [11] It is also reported to be naturalized in South America. [7]

Soda ash and the biology of sodium accumulation

The ashes obtained by the burning of S. soda can be refined to make a product called soda ash, [2] which is one of the alkali materials essential to making soda-lime glass, soap, and many other products. The principal active ingredient is sodium carbonate, with which the term "soda ash" is now nearly synonymous. The processed ashes of S. soda contain as much as 30% sodium carbonate. [12]

A high concentration of sodium carbonate in the ashes of S. soda occurs if the plant is grown in highly saline soils (i.e. in soils with a high concentration of sodium chloride), so that the plant's tissues contain a fairly high concentration of sodium ions. S. soda can be irrigated with sea water, which contains about 40 g/L of dissolved sodium chloride and other salts. When these sodium-rich plants are burned, the carbon dioxide that is produced presumably reacts with this sodium to form sodium carbonate.[ citation needed ]

Cells of the boatlily plant Rhoeo discolor. The large pink region in each cell is a vacuole. Sodium is sequestered in vacuoles by halophyte cells. Rhoeo Discolor - Plasmolysis.jpg
Cells of the boatlily plant Rhoeo discolor. The large pink region in each cell is a vacuole. Sodium is sequestered in vacuoles by halophyte cells.

It is surprising to find a higher concentration of sodium than of potassium in plant tissues; the former element is usually toxic, and the latter element is essential, to the metabolic processes of plants. Thus, most plants, and especially most crop plants, are "glycophytes", and suffer damage when planted in saline soils. [13] [14] S. soda, and the other plants that were cultivated for soda ash, are "halophytes" that tolerate much more saline soils than do glycophytes, and that can thrive with much larger densities of sodium in their tissues than can glycophytes.[ citation needed ]

The biochemical processes within the cells of halophytes are typically as sensitive to sodium as are the processes in glycophytes. Sodium ions from a plant's soil or irrigation water are toxic primarily because they interfere with biochemical processes within a plant's cells that require potassium, which is a chemically similar alkali metal element. [15] The cell of a halophyte such as S. soda has a molecular transport mechanism that sequesters sodium ions into a compartment within the plant cell called a "vacuole". The vacuole of a plant cell can occupy 80% of the cell's volume; most of a halophyte plant cell's sodium can be sequestered in the vacuole, leaving the rest of the cell with a tolerable ratio of sodium to potassium ions.[ citation needed ]

In addition to S. soda, soda ash has also been produced from the ashes of S. kali (another saltwort plant), of glasswort plants, and of kelp, a type of seaweed. The sodium carbonate, which is water-soluble, is "lixiviated" from the ashes (extracted with water), and the resulting solution is boiled dry to obtain the finished soda ash product. A very similar process is used to obtain potash (mainly potassium carbonate) from the ashes of hardwood trees. Because halophytes must also have potassium ions in their tissues, even the best soda ash derived from them also contains some potash (potassium carbonate), as was known by the 19th century. [2] [16]

Plants were a very important source of soda ash until the early 19th century. In the 18th century, Spain had an enormous industry producing barilla (one type of plant-derived soda ash) from saltwort plants. [4] Similarly, Scotland had a large 18th-century industry producing soda ash from kelp; this industry was so lucrative that it led to overpopulation in the Western Isles of Scotland, and one estimate is that 100,000 people were occupied with "kelping" during the summer months. [2] The commercialization of the Leblanc process for synthesizing sodium carbonate (from salt, limestone, and sulfuric acid) brought an end to the era of farming for soda ash in the first half of the 19th century.[ citation needed ]

Freshly harvested agretti (S. soda) Salsola soda.jpg
Freshly harvested agretti (S. soda)
Agretti cooked with onions and bacon Barba frate saltata con cipolla e pancetta.jpg
Agretti cooked with onions and bacon

Cultivation and culinary uses

The Italian name agretti is commonly used in English to refer to the edible leaves of S. soda; barba di frate (or friar's beard) is the most common of the Italian names. This plant is not a summer green and should be started early indoors or in autumn. The seed is notorious for poor germination at about 30 to 40% standard, much like rosemary. Though the plant is often grown in saltwater-irrigated land in the Mediterranean Basin, it will grow without salt water. S. soda is harvested in bunches when small, or cropped regularly to encourage new growth when mature. It is most commonly boiled and eaten as a leafy vegetable; the recommendation is to cook it in boiling water until the leaves soften, and to serve while some bite (crunch) remains (much like samphire). It can also be eaten raw; it is said to taste "grassy and slightly salty with a pleasant, crunchy texture". [17]

Salsola soda is sometimes confused with a plant known in Japan as okahijiki (land seaweed), which is actually the species S. komarovii . The harvested leaves of the two species have a similar appearance.[ citation needed ]

Phytoremediation

Salsola soda has also been studied as a bioremediation "biodesalinating companion plant" for crops such as tomatoes and peppers when they are grown in saline soils. [18] The Salsola soda extracts enough sodium from the soil to improve the growth of the crop plant, and better crop yields result despite the competition of the two plants for the remaining minerals from the soil.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The adjective alkaline, and less often, alkalescent, is commonly used in English as a synonym for basic, especially for bases soluble in water. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base, and they are still among the most common bases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potassium</span> Chemical element, symbol K and atomic number 19

Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals, all of which have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge. In nature, potassium occurs only in ionic salts. Elemental potassium reacts vigorously with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite hydrogen emitted in the reaction, and burning with a lilac-colored flame. It is found dissolved in seawater, and occurs in many minerals such as orthoclase, a common constituent of granites and other igneous rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium</span> Chemical element, symbol Na and atomic number 11

Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature, and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl). Many salts of sodium are highly water-soluble: sodium ions have been leached by the action of water from the Earth's minerals over eons, and thus sodium and chlorine are the most common dissolved elements by weight in the oceans.

Halotolerance is the adaptation of living organisms to conditions of high salinity. Halotolerant species tend to live in areas such as hypersaline lakes, coastal dunes, saline deserts, salt marshes, and inland salt seas and springs. Halophiles are organisms that live in highly saline environments, and require the salinity to survive, while halotolerant organisms can grow under saline conditions, but do not require elevated concentrations of salt for growth. Halophytes are salt-tolerant higher plants. Halotolerant microorganisms are of considerable biotechnological interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halophyte</span> Salt -tolerant plant

A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. The word derives from Ancient Greek ἅλας (halas) 'salt' and φυτόν (phyton) 'plant'. Halophytes have different anatomy, physiology and biochemistry than glycophytes. An example of a halophyte is the salt marsh grass Spartina alterniflora. Relatively few plant species are halophytes—perhaps only 2% of all plant species. Information about many of the earth's halophytes can be found in the ehaloph database.

Soda or SODA may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potash</span> Salt mixture

Potash includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. The name derives from pot ash, plant ashes or wood ash soaked in water in a pot, the primary means of manufacturing potash before the Industrial Era. The word potassium is derived from potash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil salinity</span> Salt content in the soil

Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and water. Salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the gradual withdrawal of an ocean. It can also come about through artificial processes such as irrigation and road salt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium carbonate</span> Chemical compound

Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions in water. Historically, it was extracted from the ashes of plants growing in sodium-rich soils. Because the ashes of these sodium-rich plants were noticeably different from ashes of wood (once used to produce potash), sodium carbonate became known as "soda ash". It is produced in large quantities from sodium chloride and limestone by the Solvay process.

The Leblanc process was an early industrial process for making soda ash used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc. It involved two stages: making sodium sulfate from sodium chloride, followed by reacting the sodium sulfate with coal and calcium carbonate to make sodium carbonate. The process gradually became obsolete after the development of the Solvay process.

The Solvay process or ammonia-soda process is the major industrial process for the production of sodium carbonate (soda ash, Na2CO3). The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay during the 1860s. The ingredients for this are readily available and inexpensive: salt brine (from inland sources or from the sea) and limestone (from quarries). The worldwide production of soda ash in 2005 was estimated at 42 million tonnes, which is more than six kilograms (13 lb) per year for each person on Earth. Solvay-based chemical plants now produce roughly three-quarters of this supply, with the remaining being mined from natural deposits. This method superseded the Leblanc process.

<i>Kali turgidum</i> Species of flowering plant in the amaranth family Amaranthaceae

Kali turgidum, commonly known as prickly saltwort or prickly glasswort, is an annual plant that grows in salty sandy coastal soils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barilla</span> Several species of salt-tolerant plants

Barilla refers to several species of salt-tolerant (halophyte) plants that, until the 19th century, were the primary source of soda ash and hence of sodium carbonate. The word "barilla" was also used directly to refer to the soda ash obtained from plant sources. The word is an anglicization of the Spanish word barrilla for saltwort plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alkali soil</span> Soil type with pH > 8.5

Alkali, or Alkaline, soils are clay soils with high pH, a poor soil structure and a low infiltration capacity. Often they have a hard calcareous layer at 0.5 to 1 metre depth. Alkali soils owe their unfavorable physico-chemical properties mainly to the dominating presence of sodium carbonate, which causes the soil to swell and difficult to clarify/settle. They derive their name from the alkali metal group of elements, to which sodium belongs, and which can induce basicity. Sometimes these soils are also referred to as alkaline sodic soils.
Alkaline soils are basic, but not all basic soils are alkaline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasswort</span> Index of plants with the same common name

The glassworts are various succulent, annual halophytic plants, that is, plants that thrive in saline environments, such as seacoasts and salt marshes. The original English glasswort plants belong to the genus Salicornia, but today the glassworts include halophyte plants from several genera, some of which are native to continents unknown to the medieval English, and growing in ecosystems, such as mangrove swamps, never envisioned when the term glasswort was coined.

<i>Salicornia europaea</i> Species of flowering plant in the amaranth family Amaranthaceae

Salicornia europaea, known as common glasswort or just glasswort, is a halophytic annual dicot flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. Glasswort is a succulent herb also known as ‘Pickle weed’ or ‘Marsh samphire’. As a succulent, it has high water content, which accounts for its slightly translucent look and gives it the descriptive name “glasswort.” To some people, it is known as “chicken toe” because of its shape. To others, it is called “saltwort.” It grows in various zones of intertidal salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves.

<i>Batis maritima</i> Species of flowering plant

Batis maritima, the saltwort or beachwort, is a halophyte. It is a C3-plant, long-lived perennial, dioecious, succulent shrub. The plant forms dense colonies in salt marshes, brackish marshes, and mangrove swamps and frequently is found on the margins of saltpans and wind-tidal flats. Batis maritima is a pioneer plant, covers quickly areas where hurricanes have destroyed the natural vegetation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Residual sodium carbonate index</span>

The residual sodium carbonate (RSC) index of irrigation water or soil water is used to indicate the alkalinity hazard for soil. The RSC index is used to find the suitability of the water for irrigation in clay soils which have a high cation exchange capacity. When dissolved sodium in comparison with dissolved calcium and magnesium is high in water, clay soil swells or undergoes dispersion which drastically reduces its infiltration capacity.

<i>Seidlitzia rosmarinus</i> Species of plant

Seidlitzia rosmarinus is a perennial-green desert species of saltwort in the Amaranthaceae family. It is endemic to the lower Jordan Valley along the Dead Sea, in Israel and Jordan, and in the Syrian desert, Central Iraq and in the coastal regions of Saudi Arabia, the islands of Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran, commonly known in Arabic by the names ʾušnān and šenān and in the Neo-Aramaic languages by reflexes of ʾuḥlā. It is often used by Bedouins for cleaning as a soap substitute. In medieval Arabic literature, it is also known by the names of "green ushnan" and "launderers' potash", having been used since time immemorial to produce nabulsi soap and as an electuary in compounding theriac for use in treating scorpion stings, as well as for extracting potassium for other medicinal uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biosaline agriculture</span> Production of crops in salt-rich conditions

Biosaline agriculture is the production and growth of plants in saline rich groundwater and/or soil. In water scarce locations, salinity poses a serious threat to agriculture due to its toxicity to most plants. Abiotic stressors such as salinity, extreme temperatures, and drought make plant growth difficult in many climate regions. Integration of biosaline solutions is becoming necessary in arid and semiarid climates where freshwater abundance is low and seawater is ample. Salt-tolerant plants that flourish in high-salinity conditions are called halophytes. Halophyte implementation has the potential to restore salt-rich environments, provide for global food demands, produce medicine and biofuels, and conserve fresh water.

References

  1. ↑ "Salsola soda L." Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 19 May 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Clow, Archibald and Clow, Nan L. (1952). Chemical Revolution, (Ayer Co Pub, June 1952), pp. 65–90. ISBN   0-8369-1909-2.
  3. ↑ Turner, Guy (1999). "Allume Catina and the Aesthetics of Venetian Cristallo," Journal of Design History12, No. 2, pp. 111–122. doi : 10.1093/jdh/12.2.111
  4. 1 2 Pérez, Joaquín Fernández (1998). "From the barrilla to the Solvay factory in Torrelavega: The Manufacture of Saltwort in Spain," Antilia: The Spanish Journal of History of Natural Sciences and Technology, Vol. IV, Art. 1. ISSN   1136-2049. Archived at WebCite from this original URL on 1 March 2008.
  5. ↑ Mayes, Frances (2000). Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life of Italy, (Broadway), p. 15. ISBN   0-7679-0284-X.
  6. ↑ Jepson, Willis Linn (1993). The Jepson manual: higher plants of California, James C. Hickman, editor (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 514. ISBN   0-520-08255-9
  7. 1 2 Robertson, Kenneth R. and Clemants, Steven E. (1997). Salsola Soda, from "Amaranthaceae" chapter, in: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 12+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 4, pp. 399–402. ISBN   0-19-517389-9.
  8. ↑ Jalas, Jaakko and Suominen, Juha (1989). Atlas Florae Europaeae: Distribution of Vascular Plants in Europe (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge), p. 78. ISBN   0-521-34271-6.
  9. ↑ "County-Level Distribution of Salsola soda," from SMASCH (Specimen Management for California Herbaria) database (The University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley). Entry retrieved 13 December 2006.
  10. ↑ California Exotic Pest Plant Council, Exotic Pest Plants of Greatest Ecological Concern in California, October 1999.
  11. ↑ Baye, Peter (1998). "More on Salsola soda," CalEPPC News (Newsletter of the California Exotic Pest Plant Council), Vol. 6, No. 4 (Fall 1998).
  12. ↑ Barker, T. C., Dickinson, R., and Hardie, D. W. F. (1956). "The Origins of the Synthetic Alkali Industry in Britain," Economica, New Series, Vol. 23, No. 90. (May 1956), pp. 158–171.
  13. ↑ Glenn, Edward P., Brown, J. Jed, and Blumwald, Eduardo (1999). "Salt Tolerance and Crop Potential of Halophytes," Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 227–255. doi : 10.1080/07352689991309207
  14. ↑ Xiong, Liming and Zhu, Jian-Kang (2002). (30 September 2002) "Salt Tolerance," in Somerville, C. R. and Meyerowitz, E. M., eds, The Arabidopsis Book. American Society of Plant Biologists, Rockville, MD. doi : 10.1199/tab.0048.
  15. ↑ Tester, Mark and Davenport, Romola (2003). "Na+ Tolerance and Na+ Transport in Higher Plants," Annals of Botany 91: 503-527. doi : 10.1093/aob/mcg058.
  16. ↑ Porcher, Francis Peyre (1863). Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Confederate States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs, (Evans and Cogswell, Charleston), p. 133. Online version at http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/porcher/porcher.html (retrieved 28 November 2006).
  17. ↑ Lennartson, Margi (2005). Organic Vegetable Production. The Crowood Press Ltd. p. 247. ISBN   1-86126-788-6.
  18. ↑ Colla, G.; Rouphael, Y.; Fallovo, C.; Cardarelli, M. (2006). "Use of Salsola soda as a companion plant to improve greenhouse pepper (Capsicum annuum) performance under saline conditions". New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science. 34 (4): 283–290. doi: 10.1080/01140671.2006.9514418 . Retrieved 28 November 2006.
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