Gum Arabic - where does it come from?

[Jaga]

There is so many things I had no clue... and I just learned this in the world history course?

What is gum arabic?
where does it come from?
What does is it used to?
Where there any wars related to it?

It seems that gum arabic (which is not really from Arabia...) history is even older that natural rubber

[pieter]

Gum arabic


Powdered gum arabic for artists, one part gum arabic is dissolved in four parts distilled water to make a liquid suitable for adding to pigments.

Gum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of the hardened sap of various species of the acacia tree. Originally, gum arabic was collected from Acacia nilotica which was called as the "Gum arabic tree";[1] in the present day, gum arabic is predominantly collected from two related species, namely Senegalia (Acacia) senegal and Vachellia (Acacia) seyal. Producers harvest the gum commercially from wild trees, mostly in Sudan (80%) and throughout the Sahel, from Senegal to Somalia—though it is historically cultivated in Arabia and West Asia.
Gum arabic is a complex mixture of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. It is the original source of the sugars arabinose and ribose, both of which were first discovered and isolated from it, and are named after it.
Gum arabic is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer. It is edible and has E number E414. Gum arabic is a key ingredient in traditional lithography and is used in printing, paint production, glue, cosmetics and various industrial applications, including viscosity control in inks and in textile industries, though less expensive materials compete with it for many of these roles.
While gum arabic is now produced mostly throughout the African Sahel, it is still harvested and used in the Middle East. For example, Arab populations use the natural gum to make a chilled, sweetened, and flavored gelato-like dessert.

I remember that I used it at the The Hague art academy when I made my Lithographs!

[Jaga]

Pieter,

+++I remember that I used it at the The Hague art academy when I made my Lithographs!+++

so you have a personal connection to the Arabic gum. It seem to be used even in coca cola! In Senegal and Western Africa is one of the main crops and the 7 years war in Africa was mainly about it.

For me this was a discovery since I did not know about it that much at all.

[pieter]

So I am double connected to Arabic gum, because I love to drink Coca Cola. Not Pepsi, but Coca Cola!