Page 12 - Major Gum Resin-E-Book

Introduction

disintegration of cellulosic plant tissues. Commercial harvesting of gums and resins
requires viable tapping. The tapping technique depends on the location and distribution
of gum/ resin producing structures in the plant. Scientific tapping techniques are therefore
emphasized for maximizing yield, minimizing adverse impact on the tree and avoiding
contamination. Plant based resins are solid or semi-solid in nature and most of them are
mixture of terpenoids and their acid derivatives. Whereas natural gums are high molecular
weight polysaccharides and are composed of one or different type of monosaccharide
units arranged in linear or branched fashion via glycosidic linkages. Resins are soluble in
different organic solvents but are insoluble in water.
Production statistics in India

In India, almost every state contributes in production of the NRGs of one or other type.
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have prime share in production of guar gum, babool
gum, guggul, salai; whereas, southern states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh
have big share in tamarind gum, white dammar and black dammar. Northern Himalayan
states are well known for production of pine resin; whereas, remaining central Indian states
are among major producers of gum karaya, ghatti, jhingan, acacia and other gums. India is
among the leading producers of NRGs in the world, with an estimated output of about 5.6
lakh tons, which includes about 59% gums, 29% lac and 12% plant resins for the year 2016-
17 (Ministry of Environment & Forests, 2017). Production of various NRGs in India during
2011 to 2017 is given in table 1.

Table 1. Total NRG production during 2011-12 to 2016-17 (in tons)
Name of product 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
Guar gum 744295 818975 1129134 1094547 817042 542200
Lac 17900 19577 21008 16978 18746 16352
Pine resin 8514 8361 6875 6699 5726 5773
Karaya gum 285 212 129 83 100 145
Dhawda gum 147 380 448 295 194 240
Other gums 716 552 567 333 389 380
Other resins and gums 691 1083 975 1190 980 1140
Grand Total 772549 849140 1159137 1120125 843178 566230
Source: Lac, Plant Resins and Gums Statistics 2017

India is traditionally the largest producer of guar and karaya gums. Total export of natural
resins, gums and gum-resins during the year 2016-17 was about 329 thousand tons valued
at Rs. 28.9 billion. There was also import of about 109 thousand tons of NRGs valued at
Rs. 13.7 billion (Yogi et al., 2017). Developing products of commercial use would further
augment returns, employment and export earnings. In India lac and guar gum are processed
but for most of other resins and gums, processing and value addition is meager. The price
of the raw gums collected from the forest depends on the quality, type of gum and its
grade. The table 2 depicts the average price of the major gums.
Major gum and resin plants of India 3