Seaweeds, their varieties and uses

Seaweeds belong to the most ancient representatives of the plant world. In the world's oceans, their reserves are hundreds of millions of tons. The most popular for the prevention and treatment of brown algae, they include sea kale or kelp. A seaweed extract, derived from kelp, is used to make medicines and dietary supplements.

According to the Eastern doctors, after 40 years of age, products from kelp should always be present in the diet of all people.

Species of seaweed

In total there are more than 25 thousand species of seaweed, and only some are used in cosmetology and medicine. These are brown and red algae. The latter number more than 4 thousand species, of which agar-agar is obtained.

Brown seaweed has almost 1,5 thousand species, but of them the most valuable are fusiform and bubbly fusarium. These species are the source:

- polysaccharides;

- organic acids;

- amino acids;

- vitamins;

- compounds of bromine and iodine;

- mannitol;

Agar-agar;

- sodium alginate.

A variety of seaweed - kelp comes from the genus Laminaridae and has about 100 species, mostly edible.

Another species is the genus Fucus. Seaweed of this type - this is such as fucus bubble, dentate and bilateral, also edible, but less popular.

Extraction

Algae have long been an object of fishing for people, the most intense in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan belongs to the palm of primacy here. In this country, on the basis of laminaria, a wide variety of dishes and delicacies are made; It is added to meat dishes, soups, salads. The Japanese do not suffer from goiter and scrofulous diseases, and they have a much lower level of nervous disorders. All this is due to the consumption of kelp.

Seaweed, extracted from the bottom, is dried on special hangers under canopies to protect against rain, fog and dew, as when interacting with fresh water kelp loses iodine, mannitol and potassium salts.

Beneficial features

The concentration of micro- and macroelements in algae is much higher than in seawater. Sea kale is rich in potassium, sodium, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, iodine, selenium, fluorine and other elements, many of which are part of the enzymes and vitamins necessary for the interaction of human cells with the environment.

Perhaps the only source of edible iodine is laminaria. Without it, the correct functioning of the thyroid gland is impossible. Its deficiency leads to a disruption in the production of thyroxine, which ultimately leads to the development of goiter, the emergence of breast cancer and the thyroid gland.

Brown seaweed

This is one of the most valuable medicinal resources, a real marine pharmacy. Wizards of Ancient Egypt used algae to treat all sorts of diseases.

Brown algae have a wide range of nutrients for their skin constituents. The number of vitamins in them is ten times higher than in any terrestrial plants. Unfavorable ecology, nervous breakdowns, stress affect well-being, and the skin becomes defenseless and unattractive. Seaweeds have a positive effect on the covers, restoring the mineral balance. They also normalize the work of the sebaceous glands, promote the synthesis in the skin of vitamins E and D.

Brown algae include:

- vitamins A, B1, B2, C;

- chrome, copper, zinc, manganese, iron salts;

- folic acid, vegetable proteins and other components.

The content of selenium and iodine in them improves metabolic processes in the body, protects against the harmful effect of free radicals, activates the activity of the entire lymphatic system, improves blood microcirculation in the skin.