JOURNAL OF FOREST PRODUCTS & INDUSTRIES, 2012, 1(1), : 11-16 11 Abstract— In this research the properties of three types of Gum grown in Sudan i.e. Gumminesina olibanum, Guar Cyamopsis teyragonlobus and Combretum Combertaceae were investigated. The tested physicochemical parameters were: moisture and ash contents, nitrogen, protein, pH, equivalent weight, uronic acid, tannin content, specific rotation and viscosity. The analysis results showed: 5.35, 6.70 and 9.10 % moisture content, 1.77, 0.63 and 4.33 % ash , 0.27, 0.71 and 0.96 % nitrogen, 1.68, 4.18 and 6.45 % protein, - 40.31, + 75.87 and -38.10 specific rotation, 3.85, 5.62 and 5.25 pH values, 1.335, 1.336 and 1.338 refractive indeces, 0.150, 0.233 and 0.079 % tannin, 3.23, 0.46 and 2.49 viscosity for olibanum, guar and combretum respectively. The main sugars present were 6.10, 2.05 and 8.23 % arabinose and 6.93, 39.22 and 48.79 % galactose for olibanum, guar and combretum respectively. Low percent of manose, rhamnoe and D-glucuronic acid were reported. The elemental content of sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, copper and phosphorus was determined. The water holding capacity was found to be: 65.15, 60.35 and 65.40 for olibanum, guar and combretum respectively. While the emulsifying stability was found to be: 1.046, 0.037 and 1.006 for olibanum, guar and combretum respectively. The FTIR spectra supported the existence of sugar moiety in the composition of gum. The findings indicated that combertum has good gum properties close to those of gum Arabic. Index Terms— Physicochemical properties, olibanum, guar, combretum, gum. I. INTRODUCTION G ums are exudates from truck, fruit or branches of trees due to injury, fungal infection or scission. The gum is used in food industries [Glickman 1982, Walker 1984 and Rodge et al. 2012], pharmaceutical and many other industries [FAO, 1996, Adeleye et al, 2011 and Ikoni and Ignatius 2011]. Gum is a polysaccharide of hydrocolloids [Williams and Philip 2000]. The Gum Arabic obtained from Acacia is the mostly utilized type of gum due to its good properties. Other types of gum may be used as a substituent of Gum Arabic after the study of their physico-chemical properties and their functionality. Gumminesina olibanum (frankincense) is a * Corresponding author. Tel: +249-916934411 E-mail: kamaltha99@rediffmail.com, kamaltha1012@yahoo.com natural oleo- gum- resin obtained from the park of genus Boswellia (Marinetz et al., 1988). It is used for its fragrance, chewing gum and wood and medicinal uses (Culioli et al., 2003, Marinetz et al., 1988, Shao et al., 1998, Sharma et al., 2001). The Guar gum or Cyamopsis tetragonolobus is obtained from the seed endosperm. It gained its commercial value so recently after isolation of galactomannan which is a gummy material (Murwan K.S. and Abdalla A.H, 1988). Guar gum is used as an emulsifier, thickener, stabilizer in a wide range of food and other industrial applications (Marina et al. 2007). The gum combretum from the park of Anogessus leiocarpus, family Combertaceae grows in many parts of the Sudan gum belt [Hamza, 1990]. The Anogeissus leiocarpus tree is widely distributed in Africa, from Senegal to the west Sudan and Ethiopia to the east and in the south to Zaire (Hans, 1990). Combertum is used as food (Ahmed et al. 2009) and as medicinal plant in Africa (Welch 2010). The aim of this work is to study the physicochemical properties and the functionality of these three types of gum and compare them with those of Gum Arabic in an attempt to use them as an alternative or substituent to it. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Guar seeds sample was collected from Singa (South East of Sudan), Combretum and Olibanum from Kordofan (west of Sudan). The seeds of guar were soaked in water for 12 hours and then hand pound to separate the endosperm from the hull and germ. The endosperm was over-dried and 105 ᴼC for 20 minutes. It was kept in polyethylene bags. The samples were ground into fine powder using an electric mill and kept in labeled glass containers for analysis. The moisture was obtained by heating two grams of each sample of gum at 105 ᴼC in an oven until a constant weight and calculated as difference. Ash content was by heating one gram of a dry sample in a muffle furnace at 550 ᴼC for eight hours and the ash was weighed. The pH were determined for 1 % solution by AOAC (1990) methods. The micro kjedal's method (AOAC 1984) was employed to determine nitrogen. The protein was calculated by multiplying the nitrogen content by 6.6 [Anderson 1986]. The sugars were obtained via hydrolysis by the methods described by Randal et al.(1989) using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The molecular weight by the Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (1966) Analytical Study On Three Types Of Gum From Sudan K. K. Taha * 1 , R. H. Elmahi 1 , E. A. Hassan 1 , S. E. Ahmed 2 and M. H. Shyoub 3 (1) College of Appl. & Ind. Sciences, University of Bahri, Khartoum ,Sudan. (2) College of Science, Sudan University of Science & Technology, Khartoum, Sudan. (3) College of Pharmacy, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan (Received: June 03, 2012; Accepted: August 23, 2012)