Atriplex halimus


Atriplex halimus is a species of fodder shrub in the family Amaranthaceae, which is native to Europe and Northern Africa, including the Sahara in Morocco.
This plant is often cultivated as forage due to its tolerance for severe conditions of drought, and it can grow easily in very alkaline and saline soils. In addition, it is useful to valorize degraded and marginal areas because it will contribute to the improvement of phytomass in this case.
It is a dietary staple for the sand rat.
The species has potential use in agriculture. A study allowed sheep and goats to voluntarily feed on A. halimus and aimed to determine if the saltbush was palatable, and if so, did it provide enough nutrients to supplement the diet of these animals. In this study they determined when goats and sheep are given as much A. halimus as they like, they do obtain enough nutrients to supplement their diet – unless the animal requirements are higher during pregnancy and milk production.

Hypoglycemic properties

Extracts from the leaves have shown to have significant hypoglycemic effects.

Use in antiquity

According to Jewish tradition, the leaves of Atriplex halimus, known in Mishnaic Hebrew as leʻūnīn, and in biblical Hebrew as maluaḥ, is said to be the plant gathered and eaten by the poor people who returned out of exile to build the Second Temple. Maimonides, in his commentary on Mishnah Kilaim 1:3, as also Ishtori Haparchi in his seminal work, Kaftor u'ferach, both mention the leʻūnīn by its Arabic name, al-qaṭaf, a plant so-named to this very day. In the Mishnah we are told that the laws prohibiting the growing of diverse kinds in the same garden furrow do not apply to beets and to orache that are grown together, although dissimilar. The Greek comic poet Antiphanes seemingly calls it halimon and referring to foraging for it in dry torrent beds.