Seaweed and seagrass resources

All macroscopic algae occurring in the marine habitat and coastal brackish waters are known as seaweeds. They from one of the important marine living resources and belong to four major classes namely Chlorophyceae (green algae), Phaeophyceae (brown algae), Rhodoyhyceae (red algae) and Cyanophyceae (blue-green algae). Seaweeds are the only source for the production of phytochemicals namely agar-agar, carrageenan and algin, which are extensively used in various industries such as food, confectionary, textiles, pharmaceuticals, dairy and paper industry mostly as gelling, stabilising and thickening agents. Seaweeds are also used as human food animal feed and manure in several countries.