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Agar is commonly known as agar or agarose, and is fundamentally a combination of two polysaccharides, agaropectin, and agarose obtained from several different genus of Rhodophyta. Agarose, the chief component of agar, consists of straight‐chain polymeric units of agarobiose. Agarobiose is made up of disaccharide units of D‐galactose and 3,6‐anhydro‐L‐galactopyranose. While the agaropectin consists of β‐1,3‐linked D‐galactose units altered with sulfate and pyruvate moieties [78, 88]. As mentioned earlier, the gelling property of these polysaccharides exclusively depends on the degree of sulfation and the number of 3, 6‐anhydrogalactose molecules present.

The distinctive property of agar to easily melt at 85 °C and solidify at 32–40 °C makes it a prominent candidate in various industrial, laboratory, cosmetic, and culinary applications. Furthermore, agar is a biocompatible and inert substance and hence can be readily formulated with various other biochemical compounds used in cosmetic products such as hand lotions, deodorants, antiaging treatment creams, facial and acne treatment, and so on [78, 82, 88, 92, 122].

Other agarose‐derived polysaccharides (agar oligosaccharides) also have antiaging, anti‐melanogenesis, skin brightening, and ROS scavenging properties [92, 133, 134]. There are two forms of agar oligosaccharides, namely, neo‐form and agaro‐form. Neo‐form AOSs are called neoagarooligosaccharides (NAOSs) and have repeating neoagarobiose units composed of d‐galactose at the nonreducing end and 3,6‐anhydro‐L‐galactose [92].