Karaya gum: General topics and applications

摘要

In recent years, there has been increasing interest for the use of hydrocolloids, particularly for the gums, these fact due to need to incorporate new natural sources from plants that for their physical, chemical and biological properties are excellent component to development of better drugs and food. Karaya gum is the most important hydrocoUoid from India, this gum is an exudates from Sterculia urens tree, in despite of actually there are reports about their applications, structure and physical properties, these information is disperse. The main of this paper is provide, an overview about the origin, the mechanic and rheological properties, chemical and structure and the several uses in food and pharmaceutical industries as drug delivery system and thickener, gelling, emulsifier, stabilizer and encapsulating agents.