Agar-Agar

Agar agar is available in different forms: bars, flaked and powdered, and you are most likely to find it in the powdered forms. Natural agar agar is unflavoured, producing a firm clear jelly and is rich in iodine and trace minerals and has a mildly laxative properties as it’s consists of approximately 80% fibre.

In cooking, agar-agar is used as a vegetarian alternative to gelatin in a variety of dishes, including puddings, mousses, and jellies, as well as ice cream, gummy candies, and cheesecake. It is an important ingredient in the Japanese dessert anmitsu, which calls for kanten jelly, a mixture of agar-agar, water, and sugar.

In microbial research, powdered agar is commonly utilized as a solidifying matrix to prepare solid and semi-solid culture media for various microorganisms, such as LB agar, YNB agar, and PDA agar. Compared to traditional agar plates, powdered agar offers improved solubility, resulting in enhanced transparency of the culture media, facilitating subsequent microbial colony studies.

In plant research, powdered agar serves as a solidifying matrix for culturing various plant research materials, including rice, maize, Arabidopsis, and flowers, in media such as MS, B5, and N6 solid culture media.