Page 86 - Major Gum Resin-E-Book

Seed Gums

Description
Tamarind is a very common evergreen, leguminous tree with a short massive dark grey
trunk, ferny pinnate leaves, drooping branches and a domed umbrella shaped crown. The
leaves are paripinnate up to 15 cm long, with slender and channeled rachis. Each leaf has
10-20 pairs of subsessile, oblong, leaflets. The flowers are pale yellow striped with purple or
red veins. They have five unequal lobes and borne in small drooping clusters. Fruits (pods)
are brownish-ash colored, slightly curved, sub-compressed, constricted between the seeds.
The seeds are enveloped by a tough leathery dark brown membrane (the endocarp) and
pulpy mesocarp, testa shining, hard. The pulp that surrounds the 2-10 seeds is both sweet
and extremely sour. Tamarind is the multipurpose tree of which fruits, seeds, flowers, leaves,
bark, seed-coat, etc. have established uses mostly in food and medicine.
Flowering: April - June

Fruiting: February - April
Uses of Seed Gum
Mature seeds are dried, roasted or boiled to remove shell and remaining cotyledon part
is then ground into flour to obtain tamarind seed gum or tamarind gum. Tamarind gum
is rich source of xyloglucan used as a stabilizer, thickner, gelling agent and binder in food
and pharmaceutical industries. The gum is also an important sizing material in textile,
paper, cotton and jute industries due to its excellent binding and film forming properties.
The seeds/ seed gum is also reported to work as an astringent, coolent and aphrodisiac,
stomachic, constipating tonic.

Tamarind gum industry at Bilaspur

Major gum and resin plants of India 77