Extraction and Characterization of Gum from Cordia myxa

Abstract

Cordia is a genus of flowering plants in FamilyBoraginaceae. There are about 250 species in this genus 1 which are found mostly in warm climate. Four species namely, C. dichotoma, C. latifolia, C. Abyssinia and C. myxa, are explored up to a certain extent for various applications in scientific literature 2-6 . However, in general this potentially beneficial plant resource has remained unexplored. Our research group has recently reported the successful application of gum cordia to retard the oxidation in nuts [7][8][9] .Method of extraction, specie and geographical location may affect the properties of the gums. The first report of the extraction of gum cordia dated back to 1976 when Ifzal and Qureshi 5 reported the monosacharides in Cordia myxa. They used cold and hot water along with ammonium oxalate and sodium hydroxide to extract the gum but did not perform any purification step (precipitation). In recent years two different extraction methods have been reported. In the first method, un-extracted or water extracted gum was precipitated by hydrochloric acid 3,10-12 while in the second method, ethanol along with sodium chloride was used as precipitant 3 . In all these studies, the mucilage was first separated from the skin and stone manually. This limits the utilization of the process at large scale. However, the method of extraction reported by our research group 7 has the potential of commercialization. The objective of this study was to characterize the gum cordia extracted by using newly developed method from C. myxa.

Evaluation of Crude and Modified Cordia myxa Gum for its Nutraceutical Benefits

“…Xu et al [29] modified the polysaccharides extracted from Ganoderma lucidum that resulted in the drastic boost in antioxidant behavior. These results are in strong agreement with the outcomes of Haq et al [30] who investigated gum C. myxa for extraction and characterization. These modified polymers exhibited excellent hydroxyl free radical scavenging activity (83.4 %) while the simple polysaccharide showed hydroxyl scavenging activity up to 42.9 %.…”

Use of Gum Cordia (Cordia myxa) as a Natural Starch Modifier; Effect on Pasting, Thermal, Textural, and Rheological Properties of Corn Starch

“…It is reported by von Borries–Medrano, et al [ 35 ] that starches become more susceptible to short term retrogradation in the presence gaur gum. Similar phenomenon could have resulted in the higher setback values of corn starch due to gum Cordia , because the gum Cordia hydrocolloid is dominated by galactomannan fraction [ 36 ]. Short-term retrogradation is affected by several factors including the amylose content, the size of the amylose molecules, and the dispersion of amylose chains in the gel matrix [ 37 , 38 ].…”

Characterization of Novel Edible Films and Coatings for Food Preservation Based on Gum Cordia

“…Consequently, it is estimated that the formation of gum Cordia consists of three parts with different molecular weights. Haq et al [9] observed two peaks related to gum by the GPC method, showing the average molar mass of 1.81 × 10 6 and 3.89 × 10 3 g•mol −1 . Usually, the average molar mass of the first fraction in gums with a plant base is about 10 5 g•mol −1 , which is almost lower than the amount for gum Cordia.…”

“…is genus with almost 250 species generally grows in warm regions. C. latifolia, C. myxa, C. dichotoma, and C. abyssinia are the four species of Cordia which are considered advantageous for a number of applications in different scientific articles [9]. Cordia is found in tropical and subtropical zones of Africa, America, Oceania, and Asia [10].…”