2. Chemical structure

Acacia gum is a highly branched arabinogalactan polysaccharide with a high molecular weight and low viscosity in solution in water.

The molecule's constituent sugars are characteristic of all acacia gums: galactose, arabinose, rhamnose and partially salified glucuronic acids. The new techniques of gel exclusion chromatography (SEC) combined with multi-angle light scattering (MALLS) have enabled us to gain a better understanding of the complex structure of this macromolecule (table 1 ).