Use of Gel Permeation Chromatography in Studies of Acacia Polyacantha Gum

Elgaili. A. Omer; Mohammed. E. Abdulaziz; Mohammed . E. Osman; Elfatih. A., Hassan

Elgaili. A. Omer 1Department of chemistry, Faculty of Education, University of Kassala,P.O.Box266, Kassala Sudan
Mohammed. E. Abdulaziz 2Department of chemistry, Faculty of Science, Sudan University of Science &Technology Khartoum, Sudan.
Mohammed . E. Osman Department of chemistry, Faculty of Education, University of Kassala,P.O.Box266, Kassala Sudan
Elfatih. A., Hassan 3The Gum Arabic Company Ltd, PO Box 857, Khartoum, Sudan

Abstract

Fractionation of Acacia polyacantha gums(Kakamut) using a gel permeation column coupled to a multi – detector system comprising light scattering, refractive index and UV detector gave an insight in the molecular mass of the gum molecules. The resultant chromatograms showed a high molecular weight(Mw) fraction associated with much of the protein present in the polymer molecule, a low molecular mass fraction of much lesser amount of protein and low molecular mass proteinaceous fraction. The molar mass distribution pattern produced for A. polyacantha differed from that obtained for A. senegal gum. However the patterns of the two types of gums differed in the proportion of each fraction. Comparison of three A. polyacantha gum samples revealed that the Layoon soil samples (Layoon forest) showed, a higher Mw fraction (32%) than the samples of the clay soil (Abugarin and Gargadah) 30% and 20%, respectively.