Vegetable gum
Vegetable gums are polysaccharides of natural origin that are able to greatly increase the viscosity of a solution even at low concentrations. In the food industry , they are used as thickeners , gelling agents and stabilizers .
Some examples of vegetable gums are:
- Agar
- Alginic acid
- Alginate
- Carrageenan , gelling agent made from red algae , (E407)
- Chicle , a former ingredient in chewing gum
- Dammar
- Marshmallow extracts
- Gellan (E 418)
- Guar gum (guar gum, E 412)
- Gum arabic (E 414)
- Gum made from plantain husks
- Gum made from spruce sap , a Native American chewing gum
- Locust bean gum (E 410)
- Karaya (E 416)
- Konjac flour (E 425), from the konjac root won
- Mastic , a chewing gum from ancient Greece
- Tara gum (E 417)
- Tragacanth (E 413) from Astragalus (scientific name)
- Xanthan gum (E 415, produced by bacterial fermentation )