This is a picture of the author, Rubina X. Gaspar, with a stethoscope.

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The Unbelievable Health Benefits Of Gum Arabic

Life can be confusing.

Have you ever been digging through the internet trying to get a straight answer about something? You’ve got 27 tabs open, and you’re worse off than when you started.

It seems like this is especially true for health information.

You just want to know if some random ingredient can help with headaches. One article claims it cures headaches. Another article claims it causes headaches. Then every following article is just an exact copy of that first article. Apparently, plagiarism isn’t punished on the internet.

That kind of research runaround can get super frustrating when you’re looking for a straight answer. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue with gum arabic.

NOT A STICKY SITUATION

The volume of legitimate, scientifically verified research on gum arabic is astounding. And the broad fields of study will have you wondering what you’ve been doing with your life.

Who thought to use a tree sap for bone tissue scaffolding?

I’m impressed with myself when I don’t burn the potatoes. Maybe I need to raise my standards.

GUM ARABIC BASICS

If you’re on this page, you probably already know about gum arabic. If you arrived here accidentally through a random internet wormhole, I’d recommend reading this first:

GUM ARABIC USES

Crazy, right? Talk about flying under the radar. Well, fortunately, plenty of scientists have a more precise radar than I do. And they have been busy discovering the hidden health benefits of this magical sap.

GUM ARABIC STUDIES

*Click on any quote to be taken directly to that study.

Overall Health

“Our study has confirmed that long-term consumption of gum arabic not only has no side effect but also protects multi-organs damage from drug adverse reactions and consequences of baseline disease, including renal, vascular, dental, and inflammatory diseases.”

“GA [gum arabic] exhibit an extensive range of biological activities, as stimulation of the immune system, antibacterial, antiviral, antihepatotoxic, antiulcer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-mutagenic, and anti-cancer effects.“

“Gum arabic (GA) has been used in the treatment of chronic renal failure. Animal experiments indeed reveal several favourable renal effects of GA including decrease of plasma phosphate concentration, lowering of blood pressure and reduction of proteinuria.“

Weight Loss

“GA [gum arabic] ingestion causes significant reduction in BMI and body fat percentage among healthy adult females. Effects of gum Arabic ingestion on body mass index and body fat percentage in healthy adult females.”

“Study demonstrates that gum arabic could have an important role in body weight management.”

“GA [gum arabic] in drinking water reduced age-dependent fat deposition in the visceral adipose tissue and improved the gastrocnemius muscle reduction.”

“These findings indicate that consumption of GA may help to prevent obesity-related complications through downregulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines gene.”

Prebiotics

“It is concluded that gum arabic establishes prebiotic efficacy, at least as good as inulin.”

“Natural food thickeners [gum arabic] were found to be useful potential prebiotics.”

Dental Health

“Acacia arabica [gum arabic] gel and powder showed significant clinical improvement in gingival and plaque index scores as compared to a placebo. This improvement was comparable to 1% chlorhexidine gel.”

“This implies the presence of substances in Acacia gum which, compared with ordinary gum, primarily inhibit the early deposition of plaque.”

“GA [gum arabic]…reduces the erosive effects of citric acid solutions as shown by nanoindentation measurements.”

“Acacia arabica [gum arabic] leads to better clinical outcomes in patients with mild to moderate chronic periodontitis with effective antiplaque and anti-gingivitis action.”

“Gum arabic enhanced the remineralization of caries-like enamel lesions in vitro, suggesting its inhibitory effects towards dental caries.”

Arthritis

“Gum Arabic has favorable immune modulator effect on rheumatoid arthritis.”

Diabetes

“The findings of this study demonstrated that GA consumption in a dose of 30 g /day was effective in weight reduction and modulating adipose tissue dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients.”

“Treatment with Arabic gum alleviated hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and heart function markers. Arabic gum also minimized the oxidative stress and boosted antioxidant defenses in the heart of diabetic rats.”

“Gum Arabic is a dietary supplement for improving nutrition of type 2 diabetic patients; it has demonstrated a good effect on improving their poor glycemic control. It has also shown improvement in the levels of the lipids and the BMI.”

“Findings from the study revealed that gum arabic supplementation had effects on type-2 diabetes mellitus patients and improved the prognosis of the disease.“

Kidney Function

“A new regimen combining the traditional conservative management of CRF [chronic renal failure] with addition of Acacia gum (AG) has been reported to provide patients with ESRF [end-stage renal failure] dialysis freedom.”

“These results might have a great potential for translation to humans and the obtained data might set the stage for clinical trials investigating the effects of GA [gum arabic] in patients with CKD [chronic kidney disease] and diabetes.”

“GA [gum arabic] reduces inflammation and duodenal oxidative and nitrosative stress in the gastrointestinal tract of mice with CKD [chronic kidney disease].”

“In conclusion, this work provides direct evidence of anti-inflammatory and antioxidative capacities of GA [gum arabic]. GA was able to decrease high levels of several pro-inflammatory cytokines in plasma and kidney of rats suffering from adenine-induced CRF [chronic renal failure].”

Heart Health

“The results indicate that AG [gum arabic] is a potent superoxide scavenger. The superoxide scavenging effect of AG may explain, at least in part, the protective effect of AG against cardiotoxicity.”

“GA [gum arabic] ameliorates WPS [waterpipe smoke] induced coagulation and cardiovascular inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and apoptosis.”

Bacterial Infections

“GA [gum arabic] exhibits a direct antibacterial effect against some S. aureus and E. coli strains.”

Skin Health

“In this study, we reported the topical application of acacia gum powder for skin lesions of two cases of severe malnutrition (kwashiorkor), demonstrating a dramatic, rapid healing of these skin lesions.“

“This work demonstrated that bioinspired hydrogels based on the chemical structure and nanomorphology of alga adhesive using gum arabic, pectin, and calcium combined with  basic fibroblast growth factor [bFGF] showed great promise for wound healing applications.”

Low-Sodium Supplementation

“We found that the addition of high amounts of gum arabic could enhance the saltiness perception of standard NaCl solution and enable a 30% reduction of salt in yogurt drink and mayonnaise without impacting the saltiness perception.” 

Sickle Cell Disease

“GA [gum arabic] significantly decreased CRP [c-reactive protein] level . This novel effect of GA may be of great importance since inflammation is a cardinal component of the pathophysiology of SCD [sickle cell disease].”

“These findings reveal a novel effect of GA [gum arabic], which may be used to foster fetal hemoglobin production.”

“Findings discovered a novel effect of GA [gum arabic], which might be consumed as natural dietary fiber to modulate lipid profile in patients with SCD [sickle cell disease] and other diseases associated with dyslipidemia.”

Lung Health

“We conclude that GA [gum arabic] administration significantly declined the physiological, histological, biochemical, and molecular indices of lung toxicity caused by WPS [waterpipe smoke] exposure, indicating its beneficial respiratory impact.”

Malaria

“In conclusion, in mice, gum arabic provides extended survival following the invariably lethal infection with P. berghei [malaria]. Gum arabic is particularly effective in preventing an early death from this devastating disease.”

Bone Tissue Scaffolding

“Nanocomposite scaffolds containing gum arabic and n-HA [hydroxyapatite nanoparticles] of 40–50% exhibited highest mechanical properties, as well as supported increased biomineralization.”

“The greatest mechanical strength was achieved by the scaffold containing equal amounts of GA [gum arabic] and κ-CG [carrageenan].”

Nanotechnology

“The findings of significant therapeutic efficacy, good in vivo tolerance and non-toxic features make these particles [gum arabic glycoprotein functionalized gold nanoparticles containing b-emitting Au-198] ideal candidates for future human applications.”

“The combination of GA-AuNPs [gum arabic-encapsulated gold nanoparticles] with laser induced cell death in lung tumor tissues…suggest the potential use of these functionalized nanoparticles as a promising photothermal non-invasive treatment modality.”

“Our results demonstrate that naturally occurring GA [gum arabic] can be used as a nontoxic phytochemical construct in the production of readily administrable biocompatible AuNPs [gold nanoparticles] for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nanomedicine.”

“Results validate GA [gum arabic] stabilized green AgNPs [silver nanoparticles] as stable nano-cargos for targeted delivery of HP [Hesperidin] for restoring the progression of RA [rheumatoid arthritis].”

It’s absolutely amazing that something as simple as tree sap has so many serious applications.

Have you tried gum arabic for any health issues?

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