Gum arabic
From Freepedia
Gum arabic, a natural gum also called gum acacia, is a substance that is taken from two sub-Saharan species of the acacia tree. It is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer, but has had more varied uses in the past, including viscosity control in inks.
The gum is produced by the trees in question as a way of resealing the plant's bark in the event of damage -- a process called gummosis.
Gum arabic is a complex mixture of saccharides and glycoproteins, which gives it one of its most useful properties: it is perfectly edible. Other substances have replaced it in situations where toxicity is not an issue, as the proportions of the various chemicals in gum arabic varies widely and make its reliable performance troublesome. Still, it remains an important ingredient in soft drink syrups, "hard" gummy candies like gumdrops, and in marshmallows. Painters sometimes use it in watercolors. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics also use the gum, and it is used as a binder in pyrotechnic compositions. It is an important ingredient in shoe polish. It is also used often as a lickable adhesive in cigarette papers.
The substance is grown commercially throughout the Sahel from Senegal to Sudan.
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Terrorist rumors
Oddly, the connection between the last country and Osama bin Laden brought the otherwise undistinguished gum to public consciousness in 2001, as an urban legend arose that bin Laden owned a significant fraction of the gum arabic production in Sudan, and that therefore one should boycott products using it. As a result some food producers, for instance Snapple, renamed the ingredient "gum acacia" on their labels.
This story took on somewhat significant proportions, mostly thanks to an article in The Daily Telegraph a few days after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, which echoed this claim. Eventually the US State Department issued a release stating that while Osama bin Laden had once had considerable holdings in Sudanese gum arabic production, he divested himself of these when he was expelled from Sudan in 1996.
Witchcraft
Gum arabic is also used in witchcraft as a harder-wearing alternative to chalk in protective circles, and as an incense.
Breaking surface tension inside Soda
Soda get its fizz from a gas known as carbon dioxide. When the carbon dioxide is pumped into the soda, water molecules cling to the gas and create tiny bubbles of gas in the liquid. The force holding the gas inside the water is known as surface tension.
It takes a lot of energy to break the surface tension inside soda. However, ARABIC GUM causes the surface tension of the water molecules to break even more easily, releasing more carbon dioxide gas at an astounding rate!
This effect can be demonstrated by the famous experiment called "mentos and coke".
