Abstract
Two things are commonly called by the name of agar-agar. On the one hand it is the well-known name of a trade product in Europe, which is prepared from certain species of red algae, but on the other hand it is also used on occasion for drugs prepared from untreated red algae which have merely been dried. There is no doubt that much confusion exists in the use of the term and likewise there is also much erroneous information about its sources. The word is of Malayan origin and in that language it refers to red seaweeds of the genus Eucheuma (see p. 135). Hoffman (1939) states that the word agar in Malay referred to the red alga Gracilaria lichenoides, but this statement is not correct as Eucheuma is the genus most widely used in Malaya for making an agar-like material.
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© 1980 V. J. Chapman and D. J. Chapman
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Chapman, V.J., Chapman, D.J. (1980). Agar-agar. In: Seaweeds and their Uses. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5806-7_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5806-7_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-009-5808-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5806-7
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