Editing Agar (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Edible seaweed|Seaweed farming}}
[[File:Ogo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ogonori]], the most common red algae used to make agar]]
Macroalgae have been used widely as food by coastal cultures, especially in [[Southeast Asia]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hopley |first=David |year=2010 |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs: Structure, Form and Process |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9789048126385 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5umXDDmqxwIC&q=agar+gelling+southeast+asia+dessert&pg=PA31}}</ref><ref name="Zaneveld"/> In the [[Philippines]], ''[[Gracilaria]]'', known as ''[[gulaman]]'' (also ''guraman'', ''gar-garao'', or ''gulaman dagat'', among other names) in [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], have been harvested and used as food for centuries, eaten both fresh or sun-dried and turned into jellies. The earliest historical attestation is from the ''[[Vocabulario de la lengua tagala]]'' (1754) by the [[Jesuit]] priests Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlucar, where ''golaman'' or ''gulaman'' was defined as ''"una yerva, de que se haze conserva a modo de Halea, naze en la mar"'' ("a herb, from which a jam-like preserve is made, grows in the sea"), with an additional entry for ''guinolaman'' to refer to food made with the jelly.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wells |first=Albert H. |date=1916 |title=Possibilities of Gulaman Dagat as a Substitute for Gelatin in Food |journal=The Philippine Journal of Science |volume=11 |pages=267–271}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=de Noceda |first1=Juan |last2=de Sanlucar |first2=Pedro |date=1754 |title=Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala |publisher=Imprenta de la compañia de Jesus |pages=101,215}}</ref><ref name=Zaneveld/>

[[Carrageenan]], derived from gusô (''[[Eucheuma]]'' spp.), which also congeals into a gel-like texture is also used similarly among the [[Visayan peoples]] and have been recorded in the even earlier ''Diccionario De La Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina y Haraia de la isla de Panay y Sugbu y para las demas islas'' (c.1637) of the [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] missionary [[:es:Alonso de Méntrida|Alonso de Méntrida]] {{In lang|es}}. In the book, Méntrida describes gusô as being cooked until it melts, and then allowed to congeal into a sour dish.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Mentrida |first1=Alonso |date=1841 |title=Diccionario De La Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina Y Haraya de la isla de Panay |publisher=En La Imprenta De D. Manuel Y De D. Felis Dayot |page=380}}</ref>

In [[Ambon Island]] in the [[Maluku Islands]] of [[Indonesia]], agar is extracted from ''Graciliaria'' and eaten as a type of pickle or a sauce.<ref name="Zaneveld"/> Jelly seaweeds were also favoured and foraged by [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] communities living on the coasts of the [[Riau Archipelago]] and [[Singapore]] in Southeast Asia for centuries. 19th century records indicate that dried ''Graciliaria'' were one of the bulk exports of [[British Malaya]] to China. Poultices made from agar were also used for swollen knee joints and sores in [[Johore]] and Singapore.<ref name=Zaneveld>{{cite journal |last=Zaneveld |first=Jacques S. |date=1959 |title=The Utilization of Marine Algae in Tropical South and East Asia |journal=Economic Botany |doi=10.1007/BF02859244 |jstor=4288011 |bibcode=1959EcBot..13...89Z |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=89–131 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288011}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Johari |first=Khir |date=Oct–Dec 2021 |title=The Role of Foraging in Malay Cuisine |magazine=BiblioAsia |publisher=[[National Library Board]], Singapore |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=20–23 |url=https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-17/issue-3/oct-dec-2021/}}</ref>

The application of agar as a food additive in Japan is alleged to have been discovered in 1658 by Mino Tarōzaemon ({{lang|ja|{{linktext|美濃}} {{linktext|太郎}}{{linktext|左|衞|門}}}}), an innkeeper in current [[Fushimi-ku, Kyoto]] who, according to legend, was said to have discarded surplus seaweed soup ([[Tokoroten]]) and noticed that it gelled later after a winter night's freezing.<ref name=DifcoMan>{{cite book |editor1-last=Zimbro |editor1-first=Mary Jo |editor2-last=Power |editor2-first=David A. |editor3-last=Miller |editor3-first=Sharon M. |editor4-last=Wilson |editor4-first=George E. |editor5-last=Johnson |editor5-first=Julie A. |title=Difco & BBL Manual |edition=2nd |publisher=Becton Dickinson and Company |page=6 |url=http://www.bd.com/ds/technicalCenter/misc/difcobblmanual_2nded_lowres.pdf |access-date=2013-07-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606174455/http://www.bd.com/ds/technicalCenter/misc/difcobblmanual_2nded_lowres.pdf |archive-date=2012-06-06}}</ref>

Agar was first subjected to chemical analysis in 1859 by the French chemist [[Anselme Payen]], who had obtained agar from the marine algae ''Gelidium corneum''.<ref>Payen, Anselme (1859) [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3006f/f523.image.langEN "Sur la gélose et le nids de salangane"] (On agar and swiftlet nests), ''Comptes rendus'' ..., '''49''' : 521–530, appended remarks 530–532.</ref>

Beginning in the late 19th century, agar began to be used as a solid medium for growing various microbes. Agar was first described for use in microbiology in 1882 by the German microbiologist [[Walther Hesse]], an assistant working in [[Robert Koch|Robert Koch's]] laboratory, on the suggestion of his wife [[Fanny Hesse]].<ref>Robert Koch (10 April 1882) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020075001;view=1up;seq=235 "Die Aetiologie der Tuberculose"] (The etiology of tuberculosis), ''Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift'' (Berlin Clinical Weekly), '''19''' :  221–230.  From p. 225:  ''"Die Tuberkelbacillen lassen sich auch noch auf anderen Nährsubstraten kultiviren, wenn letztere ähnliche Eigenschaften wie das erstarrte Blutserum besitzen.  So wachsen sie beispielsweise auf einer mit Agar-Agar bereiteten, bei Blutwärme hart bleibenden Gallerte, welche einen Zusatz von Fleischinfus und Pepton erhalten hat."'' (The tubercule bacilli can also be cultivated on other media, if the latter have properties similar to those of congealed blood serum.  Thus they grow, for example, on a gelatinous mass which was prepared with agar-agar, which remains solid at blood temperature, and which has received a supplement of meat broth and peptone.)</ref><ref name=ln>{{cite magazine |last=Smith |first=A. |date=November 1, 2005 |title=History of the Agar Plate |magazine=Laboratory News |url=http://www.labnews.co.uk/features/history-of-the-agar-plate/ |access-date=November 3, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014060019/http://www.labnews.co.uk/features/history-of-the-agar-plate/ |archive-date=October 14, 2012}}</ref> Agar quickly supplanted gelatin as the base of microbiological media, due to its higher melting temperature, allowing microbes to be grown at higher temperatures without the media liquefying.<ref name=hesse>{{cite journal |last=Hesse |first=W. |translator=Gröschel, D.H.M. |year=1992 |title=Walther and Angelina Hesse–Early Contributors to Bacteriology |journal=ASM News |volume=58 |issue=8 |pages=425–428 |url=http://www.asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000227/580892p425.pdf |access-date=22 January 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630173511/https://www.asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000227/580892p425.pdf |archive-date=30 June 2017}}</ref>

With its newfound use in microbiology, agar production quickly increased. This production centered on Japan, which produced most of the world's agar until World War II.<ref name=Loban>{{cite book |last1=Lobban |first1=Christopher S. |last2=Wynne |first2=Michael James |year=1981 |title=The Biology of Seaweeds |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520045859 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QG4tqjFPWJ0C&q=agar+gelling+malay+japan&pg=PA734 |pages=734–735}}</ref> However, with the outbreak of World War II, many nations were forced to establish domestic agar industries in order to continue microbiological research.<ref name=Loban/> Around the time of World War II, approximately 2,500 tons of agar were produced annually.<ref name=Loban/> By the mid-1970s, production worldwide had increased dramatically to approximately 10,000 tons each year.<ref name=Loban/> Since then, production of agar has fluctuated due to unstable and sometimes over-utilized seaweed populations.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Callaway |first=Ewen |date=8 December 2015 |title=Lab staple agar hit by seaweed shortage |journal=Nature |publisher=Nature News |doi=10.1038/528171a |doi-access=free |pmid=26659158 |bibcode=2015Natur.528..171C |volume=528 |issue=7581 |pages=171–172}}</ref>