Request for Gum Arabic
Associated Documents:
Acadia Nilotica (Gum)
Gum Arabic The Ancient Ingredient for the 21st Century!
Manual of Taxonomy of Acacia Species
Gum Arabic
New Forests Project--Acacia nilotica
Saudi Aramco World Gum Arabic
Question:
I know that Sudan is the biggest supplier of gum Arabic to a market that is growing all the time - a market that panics every time the US and Sudan start arguing. I need to know how feasible this might be to cultivate and harvest in Iraq. Anbar is dying for a desert crop. What are the requirements for survival?
How do people harvest this? You serious consideration will be appreciated
Response:
Gum Acacia or Gum Arabic is an interesting topic, yes Sudan is the biggest supplier of Gum Arabic to the global market and this is growing all the time, because of the multi-benefits of this material. Acacia tree is a good choice for cultivation in Iraq because of its wide adaptation in dry region, represent as a desert tree. There are many exotic Acacia species in Iraq like: Acacia farnesiana, A. cyanophylla, and Acacia nilotica (Acacia arabica) as native which can be a source of Gum production too, It is good to select any Acacia species for Central and Southern Iraq as far as the site is more favorable.
The harvest method seems pretty straight forward as well. You need to injure the tree and wait 10 days to a few weeks then go back and collect the gum.
It does appear that this could work in Anbar because the tree does well in poor conditions, and one publication even stated that Gum production is greater when the tree is more stressed to a certain extent. To answer your question about harvesting it looks like a worker will scar a tree and then 10 days to 3 weeks later the gum will have formed hardened balls that are ready to be collected by hand.
Gum Arabic, a natural gum also called gum acacia, is a substance that is taken from two sub-Saharan species of the acacia tree, Acacia Senegal and Acacia seyal. It is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer, but has had more varied uses in the past, including viscosity control in inks. Its E number is E-414.
Gum Arabic is a complex mixture of saccharides and glycoproteins, which gives it its most useful property: it is perfectly edible. Other substances have replaced it in situations where toxicity is not an issue, as the proportions of the various chemicals in gum Arabic vary widely and make it unpredictable. Still, it remains an important ingredient in soft drink syrups, "hard" gummy candies like gumdrops, marshmallows, M & M's chocolate candies, and most notably, chewing gums. For artists it is the traditional binder used in watercolor paint, and is used in photography for gum printing. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics also use the gum, and it is used as a binder in pyrotechnic compositions. It is an important ingredient in shoe polish. It is also used often as a lickable adhesive on postage stamps and cigarette papers. Printers employ it to stop oxidation of aluminum printing plates in the interval between processing of the plate and its use on a printing press.
The substance is grown commercially throughout the Sahel from Senegal and Sudan to Somaliland.
Acacia Senegal is a small deciduous acacia tree known by the common names Rudraksha, Gum Acacia, Gum Arabic Tree, or Gum Senegal Tree. It is native to semi-desert regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Oman, Pakistan, and northwestern India. It grows to a height of 5-12m, with a trunk up to 30cm in diameter.[1]
Red acacia (Acacia seyal; also known as Shittim wood or Shittim tree) is a thorny, 6-10 m (20-30 ft) high tree with a greenish or reddish bark. At the base of the 3-10 cm (1-4 in) feathery leaves there are two straight, light grey thorns. The blossoms form round, bright yellow clusters approximately in 1.5 cm (0.5 in) diameter, growing to 7-20 cm (3-8 in) long.
It is distributed from Egypt to Kenya and west Senegal. In the Sahara, it often grows in damp valleys.
I have read the material that Adel produced regarding Gum Arabic. I think that after reading the material it is pretty easy to answer the survival requirements and the method of harvest questions, but the part dealing with feasibility is what I am not sure about.
I have asked some of our generalists, and have even been in touch with a specialist about this question. After reading some publications about Gum Arabic, how it is grown, what conditions it needs, and how to harvest it I can tell you that this will be a long term project and you most likely will not get a harvest until about year 5.