USEFUL ALGAE — CHASE 403 



Several kinds of algae were used by the ancient Chinese as food. 

 The large seaweed called Laminaria saccharina and Gracilaria 

 lichenoides commonly known as Cej'lon moss are mentioned as articles 

 of food in the Chinese Materia Medica. The Chinese regarded a 

 seaweed diet as cooling but rather debilitating if pursued for a long 

 time. Both as a food and a medicine was used Porphyra coccinea 

 which is described in the Chinese Materia Medica as follows: 



This algal plant is a sort of laver which is green when in the fresh state and 

 purple when dry. It grows on the seashore of South China and the Fukienesu 

 gather it and press it into cakes. It is not poisonous, but when taken in excess 

 produces colicky pains, flatulence, and eructation of mucus. It is recommended 

 in diseases of the throat, esiwcially goiter. 



The Pentsao recommends all of the medicinal algae in the treat- 

 ment of goiter. A seaweed called k'tm-pu was recommended for 

 dropsies of all kinds. Gillur-Ka-putta, a dried seaweed collected 

 near the mouth of the Saghalien River was highly prized in upper 

 India as a remedy for bronchocele. Lung-she-ts'ai (dragon's tongue) 

 M'as used as an application in the treatment of abscesses and cancers. 

 Gracilaria lichenoides was utilized as a demulcent in intestinal and 

 bladder difficulties. Practically all the medicinal properties of plants 

 are attributed to the semimythical Shen Nung, known as the First 

 Farmer or Father of Husbandry and Medicine, and who purportedly 

 lived in 3000 B. C. 



Virgil, the prince of Latin poets, who lived from 70-19 B. C., 

 used the phrase "vilior alga" meaning "more vile or worthless than 

 algae." Algae grew in great abundance about the Island of Crete. 

 When it was torn by the violence of the waves from the rocks where 

 it grew and was then tossed about the sea and finally cast upon 

 the shore, it became altogether useless, lost its color, and presented 

 an unseemly appearance. Again, in another passage, Virgil writes 

 of seaweed beaten back against the shore by the waves. Evidently, 

 seaweed had no value whatsoever in his experience. 



Horace (65-8 B. C.) shared Virgil's poor estimation of algae. In 

 his Satires he writes: "But birth and virtue unless [attended] with 

 substance, is viler than seaweed"; and again, "Tomorrow a tempest 

 sent from the east shall strew the grove with many leaves, and the 

 shore with useless seaweed, unless that old prophetess of rain, the 

 raven, deceives me." 



However, Pliny the Elder (A. D. 23-79), the Roman naturalist, 

 speaks of garments dyed purple with "phycos Mallasion," a seaweed 

 like lettuce. He also uses the word "fucus" for dye. Then he uses 

 the word "algensis," meaning that which supports itself or lives upon 

 seaweed. 



In his Epigrams, Martial (A. D. 50?-102?) writes of "all the 

 swarthy Indian discovers in Eastern seaweed," meaning pearls. 



430577 — 42 27 



