The different kinds of cultured pearls
Abstract
Cultured pearls are filling the gap between the enormous demand for pearls by the consumers and the small amount of incidental natural pearls available. A few species of saltwater oysters and freshwater mussels are used today to culture the pearls that are the reaction of a surgical intervention. Therefore I am discussing in the following the different products that result from operated bivalves: freshwater cultured pearls and saltwater cultured pearls. Application of the term "cultured" is mandatory in the same way as it is for "synthetic" for laboratory grown results.