Although there are more than 1100 species of Acacia distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the world, most commercial gum arabic is derived from Acacia senegal locally known as hashab gum (in the Sudan) and as Kordofan gum around the world. Gum arabic has been known for many thousands of years and there are no artificial substitutes that match it for quality or cost of the production.1 Gum arabic consists mainly of high-molecular weight polysaccharides made up of rhamnose, arabinose, and galactose, glucuronic and 4-O-methylglucuronic acid, and the salts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium of the two acids.