Agar (kanten): gelling extract of red algae
Agar (kanten): extracto gelificante de algas rojas
- Date
- c. 1658 (tradición) · confidence low
- Place
- Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan
- Credited to
- Tradition attributed to the innkeeper Minoya Tarōzaemon
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Gel obtained by boiling, freezing and drying red algae (tengusa), first used as a dessert. Centuries later it became the universal solid medium for microbial cultures.
The date (1658, or 1685 in other versions) and the name Minoya Tarōzaemon come from Kyoto oral tradition rather than a contemporary document; seaweed gelatine may have been known earlier in East Asia.
What it led to
- Japanese kanten industry, exported to the West from the 19th century
- agar as a culture medium in Koch's laboratory (Hesse, 1881)
- material basis of modern microbiology and plant tissue culture