Past use is attributed to the people of South Africa, China, Japan, Hawaii, Burma, Philippines, Chile, Peru, the North American Indians, Aztecs, Eskimos, Germans, French, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, British, Channel Islands and Maori people. Maori people used seaweed extensively in soups, steamed, roasted, raw and often mixed into a jelly with tutu juice to be eaten or used medicinally. The wide blades of Rimurapa were split to form a pouch for packing and preserving mutton birds, or to cook fish in. In China each family member was given a slice of seaweed jelly daily as a tonic, while seaweed harvesting in Jersey was time of singing, dancing, feasting and storytelling. Commercialisation started in the 1800's in Britain mainly with alginates.

Chinese physicians used sea vegetables as long ago as 3000 BC to treat human maladies. The Babylonians used extracts and whole plants for cosmetics and skin care preparations. The ancient Egyptians treated what we now call goitre with sea vegetables. East Coast American Indians dipped sea vegetables in clam juice, sun-dried them and used them effectively against influenza, a custom still followed on the coast of Maine.