Rheological Modeling of Some Plant Gums DAVID Ebuka ARTHUR Author

Physiochemical analysis of the blends AS:AO, AS:KS and AO:KS revealed that the gums are acidic and soluble in water hence hydrophilic, but are insoluble in any organic solvent except for AS:KS (20:80) which is slightly soluble in ethanol. It was discovered that not only can the rheological properties of the some gums such as Khaya senegalensis (KS) and cashew gum (AO) be improved; even the color and clarity of the gums were improved when blended with gums with lighter shades.The slope for the master curve for most of the blends were found to be more than 1.3 which is close to the finding from Morris et al., 1981, who determined the slope for several food gums in dilute dispersion to be around 1.4. Hence, most of these blends can be used as food thickeners and binders in pharmaceutical industries since its edible.In recommendation it is advised that the blend AS:KS (20:80) could be used in place of AS gum used as food thickener and excipients in pharmaceutical industries since it was found to have intrinsic viscosity value higher than that of gum Arabic (AS).