TSN: The Seaweed Nation: October 2010

Welcome! Please see later posts regarding seaweed usage, etc. Or scroll to the top of the page and navigate using the tabs beneath the header image.

So, what exactly is "seaweed"?

Seaweed is a "loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae; includes members of red, green and brown algae" (source: Wikipedia)

Seaweed is the collective term for marinal algae. Multiple species of different “types” are available, i.e. brown, red or green (McHugh, 2003). Current seaweed research, e.g. PubMed, has emphasized properties of brown and red seaweed for different diseases.

Brown seaweed (or “brown algae”), is also a collective term for algal species in which fucoxanthin predominates over chlorophyll, giving the plant its brown colour. Majority are found in cold waters. Red seaweed (or "red algae") has an abundance of phycoerythrin and phycocyanin instead of chlorophyll, hence the red colour. Seaweeds, such as palmaria palmata are primarily marine algae. Green seaweed have both chlorophyll a and b, and have been commercially produced for beta-carotene (Guiry, 2010; McHughs, 2003).

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Sunday, October 31, 2010

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