Fucoxanthin History

As people across the world strive to incorporate more fucoxanthin into their diets, believing the compound will benefit them, it's easy to forget that fucoxanthin has actually been consumed in some areas of the world for literally thousands of years. Kombu, for example, a type of brown seaweed containing fucoxanthin, has a long and well established history of use in Japan, where it continues to be eaten regularly to this day.

Although archaeological evidence of the use of fucoxanthin is scarce, many historians and archaeologists believe that fucoxanthin was consumed in Japan as far back as the Jomon Period, which lasted from 12,000 to 4000 BC. The earliest actual recorded use of fucoxanthin in Japan, however, can be found in the Shoku Nihongi, a written history of the nation. The first official mention of the now popular Kombu dates back to 797.

However, it would be some time before the use of fucoxanthin in Japan would become widespread. At first, it was eaten in its fresh state, and so the shelf life of the seaweed was extremely short. During the 14th Century, an effective technique to dry Kombu was discovered, so the food source could effectively be stored for a longer period of time.

By the early 15th Century, extensive trading routes were established throughout the country. This, along with the longer shelf life of the dried state of the seaweed, caused fucoxanthin consumption to become much more widespread.

At this time, however, kombu still had to be obtained from the wild, so harvesting the seaweed was difficult and time consuming, making it too costly for many people to afford. It wasn't until the 20th Century that cultivation methods for kombu were developed, causing consumption of fucoxanthin to increase dramatically. In essence, kombu could now be farmed in much the same way as plants found on land. This allowed a greater quantity of the fucoxanthin-rich seaweed to be produced. The greater ease of production also had the effect of lowering the price of the product. Kombu became widely available and much more affordable, and the consumption of fucoxanthin by the average Japanese citizen greatly increased.

Since this time, kombu and other types of seaweeds that contain fucoxanthin have been an important part of Japanese diets. Fucoxanthin is also regularly consumed by people living in China and Korea.

Today, most of the fucoxanthin worldwide is produced in controlled aquaculture environments, where brown seaweeds are grown and harvested on a massive scale. Production and consumption of seaweed worldwide continues to increase, in part because of the interest in the potential benefits of fucoxanthin. In fact, brown seaweed accounts for as much as 75% of all the seaweed produced worldwide, with red algae coming in at a distant second, accounting for about 25% of seaweed production worldwide. The total amount of green algae grown and harvested represents a negligible percentage.

Asian countries are known for eating foods rich in fucoxanthin, and it is no surprise that these countries are among the top producers of brown seaweed. China leads the way among the Asian countries, producing four million tonnes of cultivated seaweed each year, which represents about 59% of the total production worldwide. Japan and Korea both produce about 10% of the total worldwide production. Surprisingly, however, it is the Far East countries that produce the most, and all of these countries combined produce about 90% of the global supply of fucoxanthin.

Cultivating fucoxanthin-containing seaweeds continues to be a profitable and expanding enterprise. With interest in fucoxanthin and its possible benefits increasing all the time, it's quite likely that the total amount of seaweed produced worldwide each year will only continue to grow.

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