Characterization of Grewia Gum, a potential pharmaceutical excipient

Elijah I. Nep, Barbara R. Conway

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

112 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Grewia gum was extracted from the inner stem bark of Grewia mollis and characterized by several techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis of the extracted sample. Spectroscopic techniques such as x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier-transformed infrared (FT-IR), solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and 1H and 13C NMR techniques were also used to characterize the gum. The results showed that grewia gum is a typically amorphous polysaccharide gum containing glucose, rhamnose, galactose, arabinose and xylose as neutral sugars. It has an average molecular weight of 5925 kDa expressed as the pullulan equivalent. The gum slowly hydrated in water, dispersing and swelling to form a highly viscous dispersion exhibiting pseudoplastic flow behaviour. The polysaccharide gum is thermally stable and may have application as stabilizer or suspending agent in foods, cosmetics and in pharmaceuticals. It may have application as a binder or sustained-release polymer matrix in tablets or granulations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)30-40
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Excipients and Food Chemicals
Volume1
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Characterization of Grewia Gum, a potential pharmaceutical excipient'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this