MACOI - Portuguese Seaweeds Website

Class:

Florideophyceae

Genus:

Plocamium J.V. Lamouroux

Species:

Plocamium cartilagineum

Authority:

(L.) P.S.Dixon

Description:

Narrow, compressed, cartilaginous, bright scarlet fronds, to 300 mm long, tufted, much divided. Branching irregularly alternate, pinnules alternately secund in twos to fives, with acute apices, lowest of each set a simple spur, others increasingly strongly pectinate.

A bright scarlet seaweed up to 30 cm in length with branching fronds. The branching occurs alternately along the fronds and becomes more frequent towards the tips. The general appearance of these seaweeds can greatly vary from very compact and closely branched to a much broader appearance with widely separated branching. The tips are incurving and ultimate branching occurs only to one side, giving a distinctive feathery or comb-like appearance.

Name History

Adjective (Latin), cartilaginous, flexible but firm and tough

Biogeography

NE Atlantic (Scandinavia to Senegal, North Sea), SE Atlantic (Namibia); Mediterranean; indian Ocean (Pakistan, Mauritius); NW Pacific (Japan); Pacific Is; NE Pacific (Alaska to California); SE-Pacific (Chile); Australia, New Zealand; Antarctica.

Uses and compounds

Extracts with a red colour are said to have been used for cosmetic purposes in ancient Rome (Braune & Guiry, 2011).

Plocamium cartilagineum is harvested commercially as the main raw material for agar production on the Pacific coast of North America. Agar is widely used not only in laboratories as a growth medium for bacteria and other cultures, but in food and cosmetics as a gelling agent and stabilizer. It is a very pure, natural, firm gel. Plocamium cartilagineum extracts are also high in lypolitic (lipid-digesting) sterols and as such is useful as an additive in slimming applications such as creams and massage products where it is able to provoke the release of fatty acids and eliminate surface fat, acting as a skin-firmer.

Harvesting: Commercially harvesting of Plocamium cartilagineum takes place on the west coast of North America and in Brittany, France.

Harvesting Techniques: Plocamium cartilagineum is harvested by hand by divers from deeper waters along California and France. The collected seaweeds are then dried. The agar gel is derived by boiling the dried Plocamium cartilagineum plants in water and filtering the solution before allowing it to dry in the sunlight.

Furoplocamioid, perfuroplocamioid, pirene and tetrachlorinated cyclohexane from the red alga Plocumium cartilagineum (Argandona et al., 2002) exhibited selective cytotoxicity against human tumour cell lines with pirene showing a specific and irreversible effect on some cells (de Ines et al., 2004).

Insecticidal activity - The insecticidal and acaricidal polyhalogenated monoterpenes 321–324 have been isolated from Chilean specimens of the red alga Plocamium cartilagineum. The insecticidal activity of these compounds proved to be effective against the Aster leafhopper (San-Martin et al., 1991).

References

Braune, W. (2008). Meeresalgen. Ein Farbbildführer zu den verbreiteten benthischen Grün- Braun- und Rotalgen der Weltmeere. pp. [1]-596, 266 pls. Ruggell: A.R.G. Gantner Verlag.

Loiseaux-de Goër, S. & Noailles, M.-C. (2008). Algues de Roscoff. pp. [1]-215, col. figs. Roscoff: Editions de la Station Biologique de Roscoff.

Saunders, G.W. & Lehmkuhl, K.V. (2005). Molecular divergence and morphological diversity among four cryptic species of Plocamium (Plocamiales, Florideophyceae) in northern Europe. European Journal of Phycology 40: 293-312.

Silva, P.C., Basson, P.W. & Moe, R.L. (1996). Catalogue of the benthic marine algae of the Indian Ocean. University of California Publications in Botany 79: 1-1259.

Womersley, H.B.S. (1994). The marine benthic flora of southern Australia - Part IIIA - Bangiophyceae and Florideophyceae (Acrochaetiales, Nemaliales, Gelidiales, Hildenbrandiales and Gigartinales sensu lato). pp. 1-508, 167 figs, 4 pls, 4 maps. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Study.

Yano, T., Kamiya, M., Arai, S. & Kawai, H. (2004). Morphological homoplasy in Japanese Plocamium species (Plocamiales, Rhodophyta) inferred from the Rubisco spacer sequence and intracellular acidity. Phycologia 43: 383-393, 11 figs, 2 tables.

Yano, T., Kamiya, M., Murikami, A., Sasaki, H. & Kawai, H. (2006). Biochemical phenotypes corresponding to molecular phylogeny of the red alga Plocamium (Plocamiales, Rhodophyta): implications of incongruence with the conventional taxonomy. Journal of Phycology 42: 155-169.

Habitat:

Temperate seas throughout the world; found on coasts of strong to moderate wave action and known from depths of 2-26 m (Womersley 1994: 389). Growing on Laminaria hyperborea stipes and on other algae

Common names:

In English: Cock's Comb; Red Comb Weed;

Other names: boucle de cheveux, chinai ghas, cockscombe, Kammtang, kamwier, red comb weed; previously known as Gelidium cartilagineum.

Type information:

Basionym: Fucus cartilagineus Linnaeus

Type locality: "In Oceano australiore" (but probably northern Europe) (Silva, Basson & Moe 1996: 340). Lectotype: L 910, 184...14 (Womersley 1994: 389). Notes: This type locality was first recorded by Dixon (1967: 55-57). Northern Europe (Womersley 1994: 389).