TITLE:
Study of the Antioxidant Activity of Gum Arabic and Its Effect on Bacteria
AUTHORS:
Rania Ahmad Abokhater, Eiman Salem Bazina, Hawa Meftah Gerriow, Fatma Abdulmawla Enwiji
KEYWORDS:
Gum Arabic, Antioxidant, Solvent Extraction, TPC, DPPH, Antibacterial Activity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.15 No.10,
October
29,
2025
ABSTRACT: Gum Arabic (GA) is the main product of acacia trees, also known as Acacia seyal gum (ASG), and is a dried exudate from trees of Acacia. It provides a rich source of non-viscous soluble fiber that is used traditionally in folk medicine. It is rich in antioxidant. The aim of this research was to extract phenolic compounds present in gum Arabic (GA) using absolute methanol. The antioxidant activity was studied using two methods: Folin-Ciocalteu indexes (FCI), which indicate total phenolic compounds (TPC), where gallic acid was used as a reference, and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), where ascorbic acid was used as a reference. The results reveal that the FCI shows that the phenolic compounds extracted from GA range from 1079 to 4944 mg GAE/g of extract, where GAE is gallic acid equivalent. It was observed that the phenolic compounds have a great ability to displace the stable free radical DPPH to diphenylpicrylhydrazine of the yellow color, and the best value for IC50 was 4461.05 µg/ml. The antioxidant equivalent to ascorbic acid was 4163.30 μg/ml, which was the highest efficacy for a concentration of 5000 mg/ml of the extract and the lowest at a concentration of 1000 mg/ml. The extract was tested against the following antibacterial types: Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus spp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp, Pseudomonas spp, and Proteus spp. According to the findings, different extract concentrations effectively inhibited the growth of the chosen pathogenic microorganisms. The study revealed that the Gum Arabic (GA) contains large amounts of phenolic compounds which were found to be the main contributor to its antioxidant activities, and the extract was found to exert low to moderate antibacterial activity. Hence, it can be concluded that the Gum Arabic (GA) can lead to the creation of compounds that can be used to develop new and more effective products.