Production of Pearls

Abstract

The pearl is known as the queen of jewels, and has been used for adornment and as a symbol of material wealth throughout human history. Pearls are formed by the secretion of nacre from epidermal cells within mollusc mantle tissue. But particular conditions are required for loose natural pearls to form and this occurrence is rare. However, utilization of this process for cultured pearl production now supports industries in more than 30 countries including China,

Freshwater pearl culture in Mexico: historic context, present status and future perspectives

“…Nevertheless, as in Japan, China faces severe problems that include the heavy contamination of water bodies, depletion of natural stocks due to overfishing and recent declaration of C. plicata as endangered species at some prefectures in China (Zhu et al . 2018; Sun et al . 2019).…”

“…Pearl culture is an ancient activity that gradually transformed into one of the leading and more profitable aquaculture industries worldwide (Taylor & Strack 2011). Today, two major groups of molluscs are used for pearl culture, freshwater mussels (Fiske & Shepherd 2007) and marine pearl oysters (Zhu et al 2018). Historically, both mollusc groups have had a strong influence on the cultural, social and economic development of entire nations, as well as on their livelihoods (Southgate et al 2011;Bai et al 2014).…”

“…2014) and the marine pearl oysters Pinctada fucata , Pinctada margaritifera , and Pinctada maxima (Zhu et al . 2018). Additionally, these productions relied for decades on natural stocks, causing severe biological, ecological, and economic problems, such as overfishing (Southgate et al .…”

“…Historically, both mollusc groups have had a strong influence on the cultural, social and economic development of entire nations, as well as on their livelihoods (Southgate et al 2011;Bai et al 2014). However, the freshwater and marine pearl industries have the limitation that their entire production of cultured pearls have relied for decades only on a few species, the freshwater mussels Cristaria plicata, Hyriopsis cumingii, and Hyriopsis schlegelii (Bai et al 2014) and the marine pearl oysters Pinctada fucata, Pinctada margaritifera, and Pinctada maxima (Zhu et al 2018). Additionally, these productions relied for decades on natural stocks, causing severe biological, ecological, and economic problems, such as overfishing (Southgate et al 2011;Sun et al 2019), loss of genetic diversity due to site-to-site translocation and inter and intra species breeding (Li et al 2009;Jin et al 2012;Lemer & Planes 2012, and saturation of markets with pearls of similar appearance and colour (Fassler 2004;Taylor & Strack 2011).…”

Detection of Color Treatment and Optical Brightening in Chinese Freshwater "Edison" Pearls

“…urrently, China is the world's largest producer of cultured pearls, and the majority are cultured in freshwater environments such as rivers, lakes, and ponds (Cartier and Ali, 2013;Zhu et al, 2019). Over the last several decades, advances in freshwater culturing techniques have also significantly improved the quality of Chinese freshwater cultured pearls on the market, such as Ming pearls and "Edison" pearls, to the point where these round bead cultured products can rival saltwater cultured pearls such as akoya, South Sea, and Tahitian pearls (Scarratt et al, 2000;Akamatsu et al, 2001;Fiske and Shepherd, 2007;Hänni, 2011;Karampelas, 2012;Zhou and Zhou, 2015;Otter et al, 2017;Li et al, 2018;Bui et al, 2019).…”