The Collaborative International Dictionary
Acacia \A*ca"cia\, n.; pl. E. Acacias, L. Acaci[ae]. [L. from Gr. ?; orig. the name of a thorny tree found in Egypt; prob. fr. the root ak to be sharp. See Acute.]
A genus of leguminous trees and shrubs. Nearly 300 species are Australian or Polynesian, and have terete or vertically compressed leaf stalks, instead of the bipinnate leaves of the much fewer species of America, Africa, etc. Very few are found in temperate climates.
(Med.) The inspissated juice of several species of acacia; -- called also gum acacia, and gum arabic.
Wiktionary
n. An edible substance taken from one of two species of sub-Saharan acacia trees, (taxlink Senegalia senegal species noshow=1) and (taxlink Vachellia seyal species noshow=1). It is used in the food industry as a stabilizer (e.g. in soda, gumdrops and marshmallows) and in other industries including pharmaceuticals, paints and polishes.
WordNet
n. gum from an acacia tree; used as a thickener (especially in candies and pharmaceuticals) [syn: gum acacia]
Wikipedia
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 the "Gum arabic tree"; in the present day, gum arabic is predominantly collected from two related species, namely 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 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.
Usage examples of "gum arabic".
We'll be able to collect one month's exudate of gum arabic from it here in the present.
They live in her attic room, where it smells of environment, rosin, and gum arabic.
The tannin should have bitten deeply into the parchment even after the gum arabic was dissolved.
The liquid form of a few drops on gum arabic is hopelessly antiquated.
From her pocket, she removed a small piece of gum arabic, which she carried especially for this spell.
She needed to determine the proper amount of gum arabic for the caustic mixture.
The tree exudes a gum that is equal to the gum arabic of commerce.
It means one part of gum arabic, two of green vitriol, and three of galls in thirty parts of water.
They were the horns of the little grey duiker, the open ends sealed with gum arabic, and Kuzawa had taken all the twelve years of their lives to assemble the magical potion that was contained in each of them.
They landed on the yellow beach under the walls of the temple, and the priests were waiting to welcome the Regent with psalms and offerings of gum arabic and myrrh.