| agar | n. [ See agar-agar. ] 1. common shortened form of agar-agar{ 2 }.
Syn. -- gelose, agar-agar. [ PJC ] 2. 1 any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent; -- used especially with a modifying prefix, as, EMB agar. The term is applied both to the dehydrated medium powder containing agar and to the gelatinous medium prepared from it.
Syn. -- nutrient agar [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ] |
| Agar-agar | ‖n. [ Ceylonese local name. ] 1. A fucus or seaweed much used in the East for soups and jellies; Ceylon moss (Gracilaria lichenoides). [ 1913 Webster ] 2. A gelatinlike substance, or a solution of it, prepared from certain seaweeds containing gelose (such as Ceylon moss, Gracilaria lichenoides or other seaweeds of the genera Gelidium, Ceramium, Pterocladia, and Eucheuma), and used for solidifying growth media in the artificial cultivation of bacteria, or as a gelling agent in foods; -- usually called simply agar, by abbreviation. In composition it is predominantly a polysaccharide, and is not degraded by most bacteria. It thus almost completely replaced the earlier protein-based gelatins used for fixing bacterial colonies on culture plates, as the gelatins were often dissolved by the proteolytic enzymes common in bacteria.
Syn. -- gelose, agar. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ] |
| Agaric | n. [ L. agaricum, Gr. &unr_;, said to be fr. Agara, a town in Sarmatia. ] 1. (Bot.) A fungus of the genus Agaricus, of many species, of which the common mushroom is an example. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. An old name for several species of Polyporus, corky fungi growing on decaying wood. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ The “female agaric” (Polyporus officinalis) was renowned as a cathartic; the “male agaric” (Polyporus igniarius) is used for preparing touchwood, called punk or German tinder. [ 1913 Webster ]
Agaric mineral, a light, chalky deposit of carbonate of lime, sometimes called rock milk, formed in caverns or fissures of limestone. [ 1913 Webster ]
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