Gum Tragacanth Research Paper

The natural plant exudate gum tragacanth is obtained from the stem of the bush like plant “goat’s-horn”, Astragalus species. Gum tragacanth has been used commercially for well over 2000 years and is currently widely used as a thickener and emulsifier in emulsion systems in different pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and diverse industrial uses. In addition, it is on the list of stabilizers that are permitted by Food and Agriculture Organization/ World Health Organization that could be used during the manufacture of yogurt. In Europe, gum tragacanth has E-number E413 on the list of additives approved by the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Community.
Gum tragacanth is known to confer very high viscosities when in aqueous solution, and is described as a complex, highly branched, heterogeneous hydrophilic polysaccharide. The molecular weight of a typical gum has been reported to be about 840 kDa, calculated by Svedberg’s method and formula. Gum tragacanth is a heterogeneous and acidic polysaccharide and is a mixture of two polysaccharides, of which the water-soluble component is called tragacanthinl and the acidic water swellable component is called bassorin.
The resulting solution was red colored, indicating the formation of AuNPs. The solution of synthesized gold nanoparticles was centrifused at high speed. The pellet and supernatant liquid were separated. The pellet was again dispersed in milli-Q water. The synthesis of gum tragacanth gold nanoparticles was optimised temperature and reaction time. The effects of concentration of gum tragacanth (0.1 to 1%) and concentration of HAuCl4 (0.1 to 1 mM) on the synthesis of gold nanoparticle were studied. The synthesized AuNPs were stored in amber color vials at 4oC. The nanoparticle formulation showed the absorption maxima at