The effect of environmental factors on the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of agar from the marine red alga <i>Gracilaria verrucosa</i> <span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN; mso-fareast-language:EN-IN;mso-bidi-language:HI" lang="EN-IN">(Gracilariales, Rhodophyta)</span>

Abstract

<i>Gracilaria verrucosa</i> (Huds.) Papenfuss was collected monthly for a period of two years from the backwaters of Muttukadu, Madras, Tamil Nadu and the agar extracted from it was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed to explain the

<span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";="" mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:en-in;="" mso-fareast-language:en-in;mso-bidi-language:hi"="" lang="EN-IN">effect of environmental variables on its yield and quality. Salinity and temperature contributed to much of the variations in gel strength and yield of agar and the variations were seasonal. Gelling and melting temperatures of the agar ranged from 35 to 41°C and 67 to 76°C respectively. Gel strength (94 g cm^-2) was maximum in samples collected during summer when agar yield was low. It may be concluded that low water temperature may be a requisite for high gel strength, and low salinity for good agar yield.</span>