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5.1.1 Agarophytes Used in Agar Manufacturing
ОглавлениеGelidium amansii (Rhodophyceae phylum), a red seaweed was exclusively used in Japan in the seventeenth century. Later this tradition was followed by China and Korea. It was the most abundant seaweed found on their seashores. When shortage of G. amansii came, they started to use other seaweeds like Gracilaria. These agars with poor gelling quality were named agaroids. But it was overcome with alkali hydrolyzing the sulfates. After that it became possible to increase the gelling property of Gracilaria and producing stronger agars.
Pterocladia, Gelidium and Gelidiella seaweeds have a natural internal transformation property of maturing the polysaccharide in the weed through an enzymatic process. Gracilaria doesn’t have the natural property of maturing the polysaccharide so it is amplified industrially using different chemical methods before extracting agar from it.