Agarose was prepared from a red alga Gracilaria dura occurring in the Arabian Sea at the west coast of India. The agarose has been characterized by studying its physicochemical properties as well as by FTIR, ¹³C NMR and CP-MAS spectra, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrophotometric and rheological measurements. This agarose had gel strength 2200gcm⁻², gelling temperature⩽35°C, sulphate content⩽0.25%, [α]₅₈₉⁴⁵-22° and M_w 1.25×10⁵gmol⁻¹. These properties were benchmarked against those of the commercially available agarose products of Sigma (A0576) and Fluka, and were found to be comparable.