New Delhi: Researchers at India's Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) at Bhavnagar in Gujarat have produced salt from a plant.

"This is the first time salt has been produced from a vegetable source and we have filed an international patent," Pushpito Ghosh, director of CSMCRI, an institute under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research said. The salt currently used for cooking worldwide is derived from seawater.

Named "Saloni", it contains several important nutrients not normally found in sea salt and is therefore promising as a health salt, Ghosh said. Samples have been sent to some companies overseas to assess its commercial potential and "the preliminary feedback is encouraging", he said.

Most plants are intolerant to salt, but some plants grow under high saline conditions. CSMCRI scientists, surveying the Gujarat coast, found one such salt-loving species "Salicornia Brachaita," a leafless shrub that accumulates salt within its tissue. Subsequently, they developed a proprietary process for extraction of salt from the plant.

While sea-salt is predominantly sodium chloride (NaCl), the vegetable salt contains salts of potassium, calcium, magnesium and also some micronutrients like iron as well.

Apart from being of vegetable origin, its production process does not involve use of any chemicals, it is claimed and the salt is naturally free flowing without the requirement for any additive.

PTI