Background
- Fucus vesiculosus is a brown seaweed that grows on the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the North and Baltic seas. Its name is sometimes used for Ascophyllum nodosum, which is another brown seaweed that grows alongside Fucus vesiculosus. These species are often included in kelp preparations along with other types of seaweed.
- The Vietnamese, as well as other Asian populations, consume seaweed as food in various forms: raw in a salad and as a vegetable, pickled with sauce or with vinegar, as a relish or in sweetened jellies, and also cooked for vegetable soup. As an herbal medicine, seaweed has been used for traditional cosmetics, treatments for cough, asthma, hemorrhoid, boils, goiters, stomach ailments, and urinary diseases, and for reducing the incidence of tumors, ulcers, and headaches. Vietnam has an abundance of algae floral with a total number of species estimated to be nearly 1,000 of which there are 638 species of marine algae identified.
References
Natural Standard developed the above evidence-based information based on a thorough systematic review of the available scientific articles. For comprehensive information about alternative and complementary therapies on the professional level, go to . Selected references are listed below.
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