Carrageenan-Induced Paw Edema in the Rat and Mouse

Carrageenin, from the Irish word “carraigin” meaning Irish moss, refers not only to a species of red alga Chondrus crispus found along rocky areas of the Atlantic coast of the British Isles, Europe, and North America, but also refers to its mucopolysaccharide extract, discovered by the British pharmacist Stanford in 1862. The name was later changed to carrageenan so as to comply with the “−an” suffix for polysaccharides. Structurally, the carrageenans are a complex group of polysaccharides made up of repeating galactose-related monomers and are of three main types; lambda, kappa, and iota (see Chapter 33 , Note 1). Each has their own gel characteristics which are all thermally reversible. The lambda form does…