430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



dehydrated kelp (ground), ground dried fish, fish liver, and fish 

 presswater concentrate, fortified fish oils, ground oyster shell, sodium 

 bicarbonate, and anhydrous manganese sulfate. 



ALGAE AS MEDICINE 



As was related in our introduction, one of the earliest uses of algae 

 made by the Chinese and Japanese was as medicine. The monks used 

 it in the olden days in cases of fever caused by the stomach. They 

 would boil Gelidium^ probably into a jelly, and sprinkle a little ginger 

 and sugar over it. They would also make a milk paste of it and eat 

 it with sugar and vinegar to protect themselves from disorders caused 

 by the extreme heat. 



Undoubtedly the algal product most used for medical purposes is 

 agar which is the commercial name for the dried, bleached, gelatinous 

 extract of certain red seaweeds belonging to the family Gelidiaceae 

 (pi. 2, fig. 2). The name agar is an abreviation of the Malay term 

 agar-agar which simply means jelly. In general, the jelly that comes 

 from these seaweeds will absorb water and swell up but will only 

 dissolve when heated to boiling. On cooling, the solution coagulates 

 to form a more or less colorless, translucent jelly. 



The effect of agar was recently tested by Nechales, Sapoznik, Arens, 

 and Meyer on the motility of the stomach and the digestion of food 

 in it. The experiments were performed on six normal subjects, on 

 six patients afflicted with peptic ulcers, and on a dog carrying both 

 gastric and duodenal cannulas. Agar decreased the emptying time 

 of the stomach in each case. 



Agar has also been successfully used when cooked with milk in 

 the treatment of certain stomach disorders of young children. 



The colloidal property of agar of absorbing and holding water 

 and the fact that it is not digested makes it of great value in medicine 

 as a laxative. 



Tests made by Caravaggi and Manfredi have shown that agar 

 contains principally laxative and purgative principals to the ex- 

 clusion of deleterious secondary principles. They found that it has 

 a slight nutritive value and maintains the tone of the gastrointestinal 

 tract. They have reported methods for the extraction of the active 

 principals of the drug in the form of a dry powder which may be 

 compressed into pastilles with an inert filler. They state that these 

 preparations act uniquely on the intestine by exciting peristalsis 

 without affecting the functions of the stomach or the duodenum. 

 They are painless in use and are not habit-forming. 



As a laxative, according to the United States Dispensatory, agar 

 may be administered cut up in small pieces and eaten like a cereal 



