There are over 10,000 described species of red algae (Woelkerling,
1990). Dring (1982) reported that 27.1% of all known species
of marine plants are red algae. Although red algae have been consumed
by human beings for at least 2800 years, their full agronomic
and biotechnological potential has yet to be realized. It
has been suggested that red algae can be used in the areas of polyelectrolytes,
pharmaceutical products, human nutrition, antimicrobial
activity, polysaccharide production, etc. (Kinch et al., 2003).