Is Cassia Gum A Gelling Agent Or Not?
Different Types of Gelling Agent
In today’s times, the importance of gelling agents in the industry has increased exceptionally. Hence, it becomes necessary to have proper information about the gelling agent to ensure relevant use in products. Here we shall briefly discuss whether Cassia Gum Powder is a Gelling Agent or not.
Basically, there are three different categories of the gelling agent are available in the market. The first one is a natural gelling agent like Xanthan Gum, Gellan Gum, Guar Gum, Pectin, Carrageenan, Agar-Agar, Alginate, Gum Tragacanth, and many more. Another category of gelling agent is known as a polymeric gelling agent and include carbomers. The third category is the cellulose base gelling agent that includes Hydroxypropyl Cellulose (HPC), Carboxymethyl Cellulose, and Hydroxyethyl Cellulose.
Differential Factors of Gelling Agents
Though gelling agents are known for making gels but they also work as stabilizers and thickeners. Each and every gelling agent has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, some gelling agents do not have antimicrobial properties while some gelling agents differ in making gels that are either soft gel or hard gels. The gels formed can differ in looks as well as properties like they can be opaque or transparent, polar or non-polar or even water-alcohol types, depending upon the nature of gelling agents.
How Cassia Gum Powder is A Gelling Agent?
Cassia gum is not a gelling agent when used alone instead it makes a hard gel when used with Kappa Carrageenan. Commonly, Kappa Carrageenan is used in the pet food industries for the production of wet canned dog and cat food products. Cassia gum makes hard gel with kappa carrageenan. In fact, the gel strength of kappa-carrageenan increases along with the increase in the level of cassia gum added. Due to the high price of Locust bean gum and carob gum, Cassia gum can be excellently used as a substitute in most of the industries.
Chemical Properties of Cassia Powder
Cassia gum has become a famous gelling agent in the wet canned pet food industry & food industry due to its own properties. Cassia gum is a natural hydrocolloid and polysaccharide that is made up of 75% High Molecular Weight. This has an approximate of polysaccharides between 20 x 105 – 30 x 105 and a linear chain of 1.4-β-D-mannopyranose units. 1, 6 linked α-D-galactopyranose units are also present in this cassia gum powder and saccharide composition of mannose (77.2 – 78.9%), glucose (7.1 – 6.3%) & galactose (15.7 – 14.7%). The galactose & mannose ratio is 5:1.
(C6H10O5)n.H2O formula allows it to be used with other different types of saccharides. The overall composition from the chemical properties perspective of Cassia gum powder discloses the fact that it is identical to that of Carob bean gum, locust bean gum, Tara gum, and guar gum.
Cassia Powder – A Gelling Agent
The above discussions prove that Cassia when combined with Kappa-Carrageenan results in the formation of hard gels and that the chemical properties allow cassia gum to be used as a substitute for other hydrocolloids like carob bean gum & locust bean gum.
