PHYTOREMEDIATION AND NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF THE ICE PLANTS (MESEMBRYANTHEMUM CRYSTALLINUM L.)

Ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L.) is an edible plant with a high content of healthy minerals and ingredients beneficial to human health. The presented study aimed to summarize the key findings in terms of phytoremediation capabilities and nutritional values of the ice plant. A rigorous scientometric review technique and Tree of Science heuristic analyses helped compile all those findings. The scientometric review used various databases (Scopus and Science Direct) following the PIO (Population, Intervention, and Outputs) strategy, which helped to formulate the search equations and identify the most relevant articles published in the last two decades. According to scientometric mapping, the scholarly work on M. crystallinum enhanced by 12.65% between 2006 and 2023, focusing on its phytoremediation potential, salt adaptability, antioxidant capacity, and phenolic compounds. The present findings emphasized more investigation regarding its potential uses in the food sector, namely, its phytoremediation capacities for cleaning up contaminated water and soil.