Pharmacognostic studies of gums collected from aprocot trees growing in Armenia and perspectives of their use

Plant polysaccharides are widely used in the food and confectionary industries, as an emulsifier, flavour encapsulator, and thickening agent. The apricot tree has a gum that oozes out in the spring and it seems to be a lot like gum Arabic. Gums collected from apricot trees growing in Armenia (RA) are considered as exudates of ecological significance. Besides, in food industry it can entirely replace the more expensive gum Arabic as well as its synthetic derivatives. Periodically organized resource potential studies in the regions of RA gives the opportunity to have an exact notion of biological and utilized resources of gums as a natural exudates of cultivated apricot trees of the country. The study was conducted on gums collected from the apricot trees of Armavir region (Armavir, Edjmiatsin, Baghramyan) that were purified by general physical methods without any chemical or enzymatic influence. According to obtained results--from one apricot tree was collected 54.15+/- 4.41 g/m(2), the biological resource of apricot gum was 45 ton. We also determined the quantities of Mg, K and Ca in apricot gum by atomic--absorptive method (Mg - 18 mg/kg; Ca - 5.8 mg/kg; K - 15.7 mg/kg). The study results also revealed that addition of gummi armeniaca increases the yeast biomass up to 55%. According to above mentioned and the great resources of raw material of apricot tree gum it can be approved its usage in the food industry in Armenia.