CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Not to be confused with auger (disambiguation) or augur (disambiguation) . For other uses, see Agar (disambiguation) . Culinary usage: Mizu yōkan - a popular Japanese red bean jelly made from agar Scientific usage: A blood agar plate used to culture bacteria and diagnose infection. Agar (pronounced / ˈ eɪ ɡ ɑː / , US / ˈ ɑː ɡ ər / , " AH -gər ") or agar-agar ( / ˈ eɪ ɡ ɑː ˈ eɪ ɡ ɑː / , / ˈ ɑː ɡ ər ˈ ɑː ɡ ər / , " AH -gər- AH -gər ") is a jelly-like substance, obtained from algae . [ 1 ] It was discovered in the late 1650s or early 1660s by Mino Tarōzaemon (美濃 太郎左衛門) in Japan, where it is called kanten . Agar is derived from the polysaccharide agarose , which forms the supporting structure in the cell walls of certain species of algae, and which is released on boiling. These ...