It is used applications also served by gum arabic. Gum ghatti originally developed around 1900 as a substitute for gum arabic. It has a bland taste and practically no odor, only about 90% of the gum disperses in water and this portion forms a colloidal dispersion.
Ghatti is often used in pharmaceutical preparations as an emulsifying agent. The emulsification performance of gum ghatti is greatly influenced by the presence of insoluble components.
In United States, ghatti is used in the preparation of stable, powdered oil- soluble vitamins.
Another used for gum ghatti is to stabilize table syrup emulsions containing about 2% butter. In such an application, about 0.4% ghatti is used in combination with 0.08% lecithin.
Gum ghatti has excellent emulsifying properties and the high viscosity produced by the gum in solution makes it a superior stabilizer for the denser pharmaceutical emulsions and suspensions.
Gum ghatti from the sap of Anogeissus trees
