Tamarind gum, also known as tamarind polysaccharide or tamarind polysaccharide gum, is a neutral polysaccharide extracted and isolated from the seeds of tamarind (Acanthopanax). Tamarind gum has good heat resistance, acid resistance, salt resistance, freezing and thawing resistance, with stabilization, emulsification, thickening, coagulation, water retention, film-forming effect, and its aqueous solution is more viscous, and the viscosity is not affected by acids and salts, etc., which makes it a kind of widely used edible gum.

Application of tamarind gum in beverage

Tamarind gum forms a sol at low concentration (0.05%-1.5%), and its viscosity is not much affected by acidity, and there is basically no change in the viscosity and color of the product in the range of pH 3.2-10.5.

If it is used as a thickener for fruit juice drink, it can increase the smooth, thick and delicate taste when drinking. At the same time, the suspending property of tamarind gum can also prevent the precipitation of small particles in fruit juice due to long-term placement, so that the fine pulp particles are evenly suspended in the juice, greatly reducing the sinking speed of the pulp particles.

Application of Tamarind Gum in Milk

A small amount of tamarind gum can make the consistency and sweetness of milk to be improved, without the feeling of sticky mouth, used in low-fat milk or skimmed milk, the taste is like whole milk; used in coffee milk or juice milk, it can enhance the sense of consistency and sweetness at the same time.

Application of Tamarind Gum in Flavor Sauce

Most of the sauces for western food have high requirements on viscosity, but the addition of vinegar will lead to a decrease in the pH value of the sauce, if a small amount of tamarind gum is added, it will have a certain thickening effect, which can enhance the taste and stability of the sauce.

At the same time, tamarind gum has good adhesion performance, for roasted meat, roasted chicken and vegetables and other sauces required to adhere to the surface of the product does not fall off, the use of tamarind gum alone or tamarind gum and other colloids and can achieve remarkable results.

Application of Tamarind Gum in Health Foods

The polysaccharide in tamarind gum is glucomannan, which is an ideal source of dietary fiber. It can play a role in preventing and controlling high blood pressure. In addition, it can increase the thickness of the non-perturbed layer of the small intestine, weaken the absorption of sugary substances and prevent the development of diabetes.

Application of Tamarind Gum in Ice Cream

As a stabilizer, tamarind gum is dispersed in the ice cream liquid, which can combine with water to make a large number of water molecules connected with hydrogen bonding, forming a three-dimensional mesh structure in the structure, controlling the mobility of the residual water phase, and making the liquid have a certain viscosity.

This property is conducive to the effective filling of air into the ice cream during freezing, and its non-toughness viscosity makes the ice cream melt well after entrance, thus making the ice cream organization fine, dense and soft, and making it have good conformability, melt resistance and thermal shock resistance.
In addition, it also enables the ice cream to form ice crystals with fine texture.

Application of tamarind gum in other fields

1、The application of tamarind gum in toothpaste
Tamarind gum can be used as a binder and thickener in toothpaste at a dosage of 0.5% to 1.2%. The toothpaste using tamarind gum has good stability, and the hardness and extrudability of the toothpaste do not change significantly when the toothpaste is stored at a low temperature of -2℃ and a high temperature of 55℃ for 24h.

The stability is more prominent, especially in enzyme-enriched toothpaste. When sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is used, the hardness of toothpaste paste will be reduced to 1/6 of the original value after two months of storage, while the hardness of paste is basically unchanged after 4 months of storage with tamarind gum.

2、Application of tamarind gum in detergent
When tamarind gum is used as thickener and stabilizer in liquid detergent, it can ensure that the viscosity of liquid detergent is basically unchanged during the storage period.

This ensures that the liquid detergent has better retention on vertical hard surfaces, which can give full play to the cleaning effect of the detergent. At the same time, tamarind gum also has certain emulsifying ability and anti-redeposition ability, because tamarind gum has the thickening and stabilizing effect of salt, heat and acid resistance, and its viscosity is not affected by acids and salts and so on. Therefore, it is a good thickening stabilizer in liquid detergent.

3、The application of tamarind gum in tobacco industry
Tamarind gum is a good natural adhesive. In the tobacco industry, it is found that tamarind gum is a good binder for the production of regenerated tobacco (reorganized tobacco, expanded tobacco); in the pharmaceutical industry, tamarind gum is a good binder for tablets and a good thickener and stabilizer for cream drugs.

4、Application of tamarind gum in pharmaceutical industry
Tamarind gum used in pharmaceutical industry it can control the release of drugs, and has a high drug capacity and high thermal stability, it has been reported to tamarind gum preparation of selenium nano-selenium, may have selenium and tamarind polysaccharide double biological efficacy, will be in the chemoprevention of cancer and treatment of a bright future, and at the same time may be in the production of animals will have a broad prospect of application.

The specific role of tamarind gel

1、Gel effect of tamarind

The mechanism of gel formation of tamarind gum is the same as that of pectin, and compared with pectin, it has much lower requirements for acid, and can form gel in a wide range of pH value, with lower sugar content, good resistance to freezing and thawing, excellent taste, elasticity and water retention, and can be used as a gelling agent and water-retaining agent, such as substituting for pectin to make high-quality fruit jelly and low-saccharinity jam, and taking advantage of the characteristics of gel formation by the action with ethanol. Tamarind gum can be processed into various kinds of wine jellies with unique flavor.

2、Tamarind viscosity stabilizing effect

Tamarind gum belongs to water-soluble polysaccharide with strong hydrophilicity. When dissolved in water, it can be hydrated with many water molecules, showing viscosity. Although the viscosity of tamarind gum is not very high compared with some galactomannans, such as acacia bean gum and guar gum, but the sugar will be added to the gum can improve its viscosity, with the increase of the concentration of sugar, the viscosity of the gum increases rapidly, and the gel will be formed when the concentration of sugar reaches 40%-50%.

3、Stabilizing ice crystal effect of tamarind

Tamarind gum is an excellent ice crystal stabilizer, used as a stabilizer for frozen confectionery, it has the following characteristics: no silk, no viscosity, good solubility in mouth; good acid resistance, stable effect; formation of delicate ice crystals; excellent shape-retaining property; good compatibility with other stabilizers, which is manifested in the production of tamarind gum used in the making of ice-cream, smooth filling, non-sticky taste, good taste, the production of low-fat ice-cream and ice-cream which requires lightness and good oral solubility. It is suitable for making low-fat ice cream and ice cream which requires lightness and good mouth solubility, as well as popsicles and shaved ice which requires freshness.

4、Quality improvement of tamarind

(1) Inhibit the aging of starch
(2) Improve mechanical resistance
(3) Improve the texture of products
(4) Improve the heat stability

5、Compatibility between tamarind and other colloids

Between tamarind gum and other colloids, there is no intersection effect like xanthan gum and locust bean gum, carrageenan and locust bean gum. In addition, there is no cross-compatibility effect that eliminates each other. When tamarind gum is used in combination with other colloids, it is a compatible colloid because it reflects the colloidal properties of each colloid. In other words, it is a compatible colloid. Therefore, when using tamarind gum, there is no need to worry about whether or not it will affect other colloids.