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Dietary Gums

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Food biopolymers: Structural, functional and nutraceutical properties

Abstract

The diverse properties, applications and safety of natural gums make their widespread use in food and pharmaceutical industries that include their safe oral consumption in the form of food additives (thickeners, emulsifiers, sweeteners etc.), as binders and drug release modified gums (drug carriers) in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Natural gums are polysaccharides obtained usually as plant exudates. They contain various sugars other than glucose and having significant quantities of oxidized groups in adjunct to their normal polyhydroxy format. The polysaccharide gums are considered to be one of the best abundant industrial raw materials due to their sustainability, biodegradability and safety. The phenomenon of uncontrolled rates of hydration, pH dependent solubility, thickening, drop in viscosity on storage, and the possibility of microbial contamination are some problems associated with the use of natural gums. Furthermore, interaction of materials with mucosal layer of the gastrointestinal tract, nasal pathway or airway is known as mucoadhesion. Many polysaccharides do possess mucoadhesive properties and their use for specific oral drug delivery has been identified by many investigators by modifying them (Rana et al. 2011). The use of modified gums for microencapsulation has increased in the nutraceutical industry. The structures of polysaccharides or dietary gums are modified/derivatized by various methods that involves attachment of wide variety of functional groups to the natural gums. This may include the introduction of hydrophobic, acidic, basic, or other functionality into polysaccharide structures that can alter the properties of materials based on these substances. For example, attachment of carboxyl groups, carboxymethyl groups, polyacrylamide groups, phosphate groups etc., has all been extensively investigated for such purposes. The introduction of new functional groups changed the charges, aggregation state of molecular chains, hydrophilic–hydrophobic capability, complexing capacity, stimuli-response ability, and rheological behavior of gums, and so the application domain of gums was greatly extended. But, the derivatization of gums can only improve the properties to a finite degree because the number of introduced functional groups is less and the molecular weight of gums cannot be increased by the simple modification with small molecules. Graft polymerization is anticipated to be a quite promising technique for modifying the properties of a polymer, and the modification of natural polymer materials by graft copolymerization. It offers the opportunity to tailor their physical and chemical properties, functionalize biopolymers to impart desirable properties onto them, and combine the advantages of both natural and synthetic polymers (Battaerd and Tregear 1967 and Kalia et al. 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Prakhar Chatur & Umar Shah

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Asir Gani, Mudasir Ahmad & Adil Gani

  3. Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Zakir Khan

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  1. Prakhar Chatur
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  3. Asir Gani
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  4. Mudasir Ahmad
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Adil Gani

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Bilal Ahmad Ashwar

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Chatur, P., Shah, U., Gani, A., Ahmad, M., Gani, A., Khan, Z. (2021). Dietary Gums. In: Gani, A., Ashwar, B.A. (eds) Food biopolymers: Structural, functional and nutraceutical properties. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27061-2_8

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