“…It is well-known that these two galactans have two major characteristic functional groups, the anhydro and sulfate groups, in different contents. According to previous papers, the anhydro group content decreases in the order agar, κ-carrageenan, and λ-carrageenan (Yaphe, 1960), and the sulfate group content decreases in the order λ-carrageenan, κ-carrageenan, and agar (Nishinari et al, 1991;Maitani et al, 1994). The hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) number developed by Davies (Sherman, 1968) is known as the index of hydrophilicity of functional groups.…”