Physico-chemical properties and protein profiling of gum exudates of Acacia nilotica collected from different agro-climatic zones in India

Not AvailablePhysico-chemical properties and protein profiling of seventeen Acacia nilotica (babool) gum exudates collected from ten Indian States covering five agro-climatic zones of India were studied to find out the intra-specific variations in their moisture level, total color difference (ΔE), yield %, ash content, elemental level, tannin content (mg/g), specific rotation [], swelling index (%, v/v), viscosity and FT-IR. All the gum exudates showed Newtonian behavior with viscosity being shear rate independent. Gums were thermally characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). DSC thermogram of gum samples showed presence of a broad endothermic peak at around 90-130 0C and occurrence of glass transition temperature in the range of 60.82-68.62 0C. TGA analysis showed three phases of weight loss indicating that the gum is thermally relatively stable. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of gum samples showed presence of mainly low molecular weight proteins. The observed intra-specific variations in the properties of Acacia nilotica gum exudates collected from different agro-climatic zones of India are presumably due to the effects of difference in their geographical locations, edaphic conditions, climatic factors, botanical sources, season and the age of the tree etc.ICAR, New Delh