Biology, farming and applications of economically important red seaweed (S. G. Gmelin) P. C. Silva: A concise review.

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is one of the most studied agarophytes, especially in tropical regions like India because of its natural abundance. Apart from the Indian peninsula, it is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. The taxonomy of is evolving; currently is the taxonomically accepted name, however several phylogenetic and morphological investigations supported its inclusion in the genus . In addition to the conventional farming methods like the tube net and raft methods which use clonally propagated seed material, spore-based planting materials like carpospores have been employed to cultivate . Co-cultivation with shrimp farm wastewater has also been practised to make the cultivation economically viable and environmentally sustainable as the seaweed could provide an efficient ecosystem service by up taking nitrogen from the shrimp waste. Like other seaweed cultivation systems, farming of is also infested by various epiphytes like and as well as grazed by fishes like , and which decrease the growth and ultimately result in low yield of agar, seaweed sap and other value added products. Food grade agar produced by this seaweed is an important resource and the current review focusses on the latest extraction technologies. Further, there also is evidence based application of plant bio-stimulant derived from feedstock which has proven to be highly effective in enhancing the yield by 10-33% in field trials of nine cash crops.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10811-023-02955-8.