element

Gum arabic

Elements · Colors & materials

Acacia gum of ink, watercolor, and food — a water-soluble binder. Not resin as tree oleoresin, and not shellac as lac varnish.

Also known as Acacia gum · Gum acacia

  • Gum arabic is used in Medicine.

    Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica lists acacia gum (κομμί) among binders and astringent gums used in eye-salves and compound medicines. A named gum arabic in that handbook, not acacia as the whole tree already walked in Dioscorides pharmacy and not tragacanth as the neighboring shrub gum.

    from Pedanius Dioscorides · De Materia Medica, 1st century CE

    used in · sourced · documented

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