Gum arabic
[4]: 4 A 2017 safety re-evaluation by the Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said that although the above definition holds true for most internationally traded samples, the term "gum arabic" does not indicate a particular botanical source; in a few cases, so‐called "gum arabic" may not even have been collected from Acacia (in the broad sense) species, instead coming from e.g. Combretum or Albizia.
[1] Gum arabic is a rich source of dietary fibers and in addition to its widespread use in food and pharmaceutical industries as a safe thickener, emulsifier, and stabilizer, it also possesses a broad range of health benefits that have been evidently proved through several in vitro and in vivo studies.
[6] These health benefits include:[5][7][8][9][10][11] Gum arabic's mixture of polysaccharides and glycoproteins gives it the properties of a glue and binder that is edible by humans.
[19] If little water is used, after evaporation, the acacia gum functions as a true binder in a paint film, increasing luminosity and helping prevent the colors from lightening.
Phosphoric, nitric, or tannic acid is added in varying concentrations to the acacia gum to etch the darker tones up to dark blacks.
The etching process creates a gum adsorb layer within the matrix that attracts water, ensuring that the oil-based ink does not stick to those areas.
The gum exported came from the band of acacia trees that once covered much of the Sahel region, the southern littoral of the Sahara Desert that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Today, the main populations of gum-producing Acacia species are found in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Traditionally harvested by seminomadic desert pastoralists in the course of their transhumance cycle, acacia gum remains a main export of several African nations, including Mauritania, Niger, Chad, and Sudan.
Total world gum arabic exports were estimated in 2019 at 160,000 tonnes, having recovered from 1987 to 1989 and 2003–2005 crises caused by the destruction of trees by the desert locust.
[citation needed] In 1445, Prince Henry the Navigator set up a trading post on Arguin Island (off the coast of modern Mauritania), which acquired acacia gum and slaves for Portugal.
[24] Gum Arabic came to play an essential role in textile printing and therefore in pre-industrial economies of France, Great Britain and other European countries.
West Africa had become the sole supplier of world acacia gum by the 18th century, and its export at the French colony of Saint-Louis doubled in the decade of 1830 alone.
A threat to bypass Saint-Louis and taxes by sending gum to the British traders at Portendick, eventually brought the Emirate of Trarza into direct conflict with the French.
[27] In the early 2020s, about 70% of the global supply has been sourced from Sudan,[28] with approximately 5 million Sudanese people (more than 10 percent of a country's population) being directly or indirectly dependent on gum arabic for their livelihoods.
[29] After market reforms in 2019, official figures showed that Sudan's exports of gum arabic were at about 60,000 tonnes in 2022, but exact numbers are difficult to ascertain because some production is in regions that are hard to access.
[27][30] Before the reforms, the production of gum arabic was heavily dominated by the Sudanese government and in some periods there were attempts of using its importance to the global market as a leverage against other countries.
