CHAPTER 5 



The Red Algae of Economic Importance: Agar and 



Related Phycocolloids 



By Harold J. Humm 



Director, Oceano graphic Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee. 



History 



From time immemorial man has utilized seaweeds for food, medicine, and 

 fertilizer. In the "Chinese Book of Poetry," written in the time of Confucius (be- 

 tween 800 and 600 b.c), there is a poem that mentions a housewife who cooks 

 seaweeds. These plants have been considered of medicinal value in the Orient since 

 the time of Shen Nung, the fabulous father of husbandry and medicine, who is 

 said to have lived about 3000 B.C. 



Although development of the utiHzation of seaweed in the Orient has always 

 been far ahead of its use in Europe, the value of Irish moss as a food and of 

 kelps and rockweeds as fertilizer was known long before trade with the Orient 

 resulted in the introduction of agar to the Western world. Agar was the first sea- 

 weed product to become an important item of commerce. At first a novelty food, 

 it later found a place in a variety of products and processes. From the kitchen of 

 Frau Fanny Hesse, whose husband worked with the famous German bacteriologist, 

 Robert Koch, agar found its way in 1881 into the bacteriology laboratory as a 

 gelling agent for culture media. As it became generally available for bacteriological 

 purposes early in the twentieth century, many other uses were discovered. 



Of the three most important seaweed products, agar, algin, and Irish moss gel, 

 the latter two were developed in the British Isles. Ireland was the birthplace 

 of the utilization of the well-known "carrageenin" from Irish moss, and it was 

 in England that the nature and value of algin and alginates from kelps and rock- 

 weeds were discovered in 1884-1886 by E. C. C. Stanford. 



The earliest use of Irish moss was as a gelling agent for desserts (blancmange 

 and puddings), especially before gelatin was available in prepared form. Ameri- 

 can colonists brought with them the knowledge of the food use of Irish moss, but 

 failed to recognize the seaweed from which it is prepared (Chondrus crispus [L.] 

 Stackhouse ) . For many years they imported Irish moss from Ireland at a high 

 price until a mayor of Boston, as the story goes, identified native Irish moss and 

 suggested its collection. So the American industry was bom over 100 years ago. 

 In recent years the commercial production of Irish moss extractive in purified and 

 dehydrated form has developed on a large scale in the United States. In fact the 

 United States leads the world in the production of both Irish moss extractive 



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