## 1 Introduction  
According to the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability [1], soil salinisation is a significant threat to soils at a global scale, causing agricultural land degradation through natural causes or poor land and water management. As most conventional crops are salt-sensitive glycopytes, the increased salt concentration in cultivation soil causes nutritional imbalances and toxicity in plants, inhibiting their growth and making the soil unsuitable for traditional farming [1]. Loss of arable land affects the economic situation of people who depend on agricultural activities and creates a threat to the world's food security.  
Halophytes are salt-tolerant plants adapted to thrive in saline habitats, such as seashores, marshlands, and saline deserts worldwide. Humans have used halophytes for centuries, primarily in medicinal practices, due to their high levels of bioactive compounds [2; 3; 4]. Nowadays, fresh shoots of halophytes are sold as gourmet vegetables [5; 6]. Cultivation and commercialisation of these naturally salt-loving plants are seen as one of the critical implementations to help the remediation of saline areas and adapt to the changes in soil quality [1].  
Vegetables and fruits are typically rich in health-beneficial bioactive compounds, such as phenolics and carotenoids [7; 8]. However, these compounds can also be found in high concentrations in botanical extracts obtained from some agricultural and food processing waste, as mentioned in the review by [PERSON] et al. [7]. Halophytes are likely to produce high levels of these protective compounds due to their adaptation to extreme environmental conditions [9; 10]. Besides healthy food, these plants could provide a novel feedstock for bio-functional feed, nutraceuticalals, and the pharmaceutical industry [2; 11; 12; 13]. For example, [PERSON] et al. [3] studied halophytes from saline habitats of southern Portugal and suggested various species that can potentially be utilised in cosmetic ingredients. These valuable bioactive compounds can also serve as value-added products that can be obtained from a halophyte-based biorefinery. For some succulent halophytes, such as _Salicornia_ species, the food production period is relatively short, as the shrubs become more woody as they mature, making them unpleasant to eat. Due to high salt concentrations accumulated in the plant tissues, halophytes can be directly used as animal feed only when blended with other feed sources [14; 15]. Therefore, these partly lignified plants are often considered agricultural waste. However, they could be used to extract phytochemicals as a part of a multi-product biorefinery. This concept is visualised in Figure 1. This would provide a value-added product stream for a biorefinery, whereasresidual extractive-free fibres could be utilised in bioenergy production, or in the production of other lignocellulosic-derived products, such as bulk chemicals. Halophyte biomass has previously been tested for bioethanol and biogas production [16; 17; 18]. Production of botanical extracts can also be beneficial considering the pretreatment of lignocellulosic fibres, as it makes the fibres less recalcitrant, and lowers the severity of the pretreatment conditions that are needed [16; 19]. Extraction with water would also remove salts which could otherwise cause issues during the processing [20]. In terms of other major compounds, since halophytes have exhibited interesting nutritional profiles [21; 22; 23], protein production has also been studied [24; 25]. Despite their potential, halophytes are still underutilised both in agricultural and industrial applications [3; 12; 23].