MACROSCOPIC ALGAE (SEAWEEDS ) 13 



interesting comparable situation, Dunlop in western Scotland administered 

 single doses of copper sulfate to lactating cows fed on seaweed and 

 obtained increased butterfat production within a few days. 84 



B . MEDICINAL USES 



The medicinal purposes to which algae have been put are indeed 

 diverse. 43 ' 47 - 71 ' 85-94 Their origins are often clouded in misty legend and 

 hearsay, their rationale generally empirical. The Chinese credit the 

 therapeutic qualities of algae to Shen Nung, the mythical First Farmer 

 or Father of Husbandry and Medicine, who supposedly lived about 3000 

 B.C. The Materia Medica of the Chinese in the eighth century A.D. 

 described one alga thus: "Whole plant is officinal. Taste bitter and salt. 

 Nature cold. Nonpoisonous . . . the hai tsao grows in Tung Hai (Shan- 

 tung) in ponds and marshes. It is gathered on the seventh day of the 

 seventh month and dried in the sun." Of the seaweed Porphyra coccinea, 

 the Chinese Materia Medica said: "This algal plant is a sort of laver which 

 is green in the fresh state and purple when dry. It grows on the seashore 

 . . . and the Fukienese . . . press it into cakes. It is not poisonous, but 

 when taken in excess it produces colicky pains, flatulence, and eructations. 

 It is recommended in diseases of the throat, especially goiter." 



A related laver of the Porphyra grouping was the source of a pre- 

 paration called k'unpu, utilized for the relief of dropsy. A similarly named 

 viscous solution, kwanpu or hai tai, derived from a Laminaria, was used 

 by the Chinese for menstrual difficulties. They also used a seaweed con- 

 coction known as lung-she-tsai for abscesses and cancer. 



For many years Chinese gourmets have used the nests of some 

 passerine birds (such as the sea swift) to make an exotic soup with re- 

 ported aphrodisiac powers, and millions of these nests have been imported 

 from Borneo. Although they were once thought to be made of a gelatinous 

 seaweed, Gracilaria spinosa, it is now known that the main constituent 

 is dried avian salivary juice! 



In upper India, an algal prepartion known as gillur-ka-putta served 

 to treat bronchocoele. Sugar wrack, Laminaria saccharina, was here con- 

 sidered useful against goiter, while in the Himalayas it was more prosai- 

 cally employed to treat syphilis. The ancient Polynesians used filamentous 

 algae to make poultices for bruises, cuts, and inflammations. The Hawaiians 

 made watery extracts of Centroceros and Hypnea nidifica for constipation 



