AGAR-AGAR
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Written by tom
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Friday, 29 February 2008 |
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The dried bleached gelatinous extract from various species of seaweed, Algae, mostly species from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is the only one of the seaweed products classed as a strategic material because of its use in medicine, but its use is small compared with the use of the products from other seaweeds. The word agar means seaweed. Translations of double words from the primordial languages, such as Malay, Carib, or Gaelic, must be made by taking the first word as a superlative adjective or the second word as a cognate verb. Thus, agar-agar means best-quality agar.
When dissolved in hot water, agar forms a transparent jelly, and is used for fixing bacteria for counts, as a stabilizer in toilet lotions, and in medicines. It has high thickening power, but, unlike most other seaweed
extracts, it is indigestible and is not used in foodstuffs. Kantan is a variety of agar from the tengusa seaweed, Gelidium corneum, of japan. Australianagar is from the abundant seaweed Gracilaria confervoides. Commercial agar is colorless, yellowish, or pink to black. It is marketed in strips, blocks,or shredded, and is obtained by boiling the dry seaweed and straining out the insoluble matter. Most of the American production of agar, as distinct from the algins of the Atlantic, is from the giant kelp, Macrocystia pyrifera and Gelidium cartilagineum of the coast of California and Mexico, but it is not valued as highly for bacteriologic use as the Asiatic. The kelp grows straight up in water 60 to 100 ft (18.3 to 30.5 m) deep and then spreads out on the water another 60 to 80 ft (18.3 to 24.4 m). It is cut about 3 ft (0.9 m) below the surface, and three crops are harvested annually. The plant is 90% water.The dried kelp is washed with boiling water, cooked with soda ash, filtered,sterilized, and treated with muriatic acid to extract the agar.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 March 2008 )
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