International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 93 (2016) 436–441 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Biological Macromolecules journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijbiomac Evaluation of physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant property of Prunus avium gum exudates Hossein Shabani a , Gholamreza Askari a,∗ , Kambiz Jahanbin b , Faramarz Khodaeian a a Transfer Phenomena Laboratory (TPL), Department of Food Science, Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj 31587-77871, Iran b Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agricultural Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 18 July 2016 Received in revised form 12 August 2016 Accepted 25 August 2016 Available online 1 September 2016 Keywords: Prunus avium Physicochemical characteristics Elemental analysis Antioxidant activity a b s t r a c t In this study some physicochemical properties and elemental analysis of Prunus avium gum exudates were investigated. The gum studied had, on average, 75.14% carbohydrate, 11.3% uronic acids, 1.11% protein, 7.53% moisture content (w.b.) and 3.12% ash. Measured values for the angle of repose, Carr’s index and Hausner ratio showed the good flow ability for the gum powder. The viscosity of 1% aqueous solution of the gum exhibited a Newtonian type of flow and with pH reduction the swelling index was increased. The average molecular weight of the main polysaccharide fraction was about 1.46 × 10 5 Da (146 kDa). GC analysis showed that the main polysaccharide was composed of four kinds of neutral monosaccharides, namely mannose (Man), arabinose (Ara), galactose (Gal) and xylose (Xyl) with a relative molar ratio of 1.0:14.7:7.1:2.4. FTIR analysis showed the presence of carboxyl and hydroxyl groups and glycosidic linkage. The antioxidant activity of the gum was evaluated by determining DPPH scavenging and total phenolic contents which showed poor antioxidant property. © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Natural gums are obtained as exudates from different tree species. With wide multiplicity of uses, they have various and exclusive physicochemical properties [1]. For many years, gum exudates have been used in food applications, including, emulsi- fication, thickening and stabilization of processed foods [2]. The exudate gums have a different component profile. They are composed mainly of polysaccharides with diverse structures. The composition of gum polysaccharides depends on species and cul- tivar of the plant [3]. The composition of monosaccharaides, types and patterns of linkage, chain shapes, side branches and degree of polymerization govern the structural features of polysaccharides. These features determine the physical properties of gums including solubility, flow behavior, gelling potential and interfacial properties [4]. The Biological activity of this compounds for example anti- cancer, immunomodulation and antioxidant properties have been reported in several investigations. [5–10]. The presence of galac- tose, arabinose, rhamnose, uronic acids, galacturonic acid, protein, ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: iraskari@ut.ac.ir (G. Askari). Ca and Mg as the main structural constituents of plant gum exu- dates, have been reported [11]. Species of the genus Prunus L. are mostly found in the north- ern hemisphere. Most of the species occur in semiarid climates [12]. Prunus is economically important because they are sources of fruits, oil, timber, and ornamentals [13]. The gum exudates of cherries (Prunus cerasus L.), ornamental Japanese cherries (Prunus yedoensis), plums (Prunus domestica L.), apricots (Prunus armeniaca L.), Japanese apricots (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.), peaches (Prunus persica Batsch) and almonds (Prunus amygdalus Batsch.) have been studied [3]. ˇ Scerbuchin, Rosík and Kubala [14] showed that acidic polysac- charide of Prunus avium L. tree gum (var. duracina L.), composed of d-glucuronic acid, 4-0-methyl-d-glucuronic acid, d-galactose, d- mannose, l-arabinose, and d-xylose. It has been reported that the exudates gum polysaccharide of P. avium and P. cerasus, have the compact internally cross linked structure [15]. The aims of this work were to investigate the physicochemi- cal, functional and antioxidant properties of Prunus avium exudate gums. 2. Materials and methods The gum exudates of sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium) were collected from Marand, East Azerbaijan Province (Iran) during the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2016.08.070 0141-8130/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.