Anil Lachke is a scientist in the Division of Biochemical Sciences of National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. His major research interests include pentose metabolism in yeasts, biotechnology for biomass utilization and biodeinking for recycling of waster paper. He takes special interest in popularization of science and technology. He likes Indian classical music, yoga and drawing.

Natural gums occur in all life forms. We use gum Arabic for sealing envelopes and for sticking postal stamps. The better consistency to ice-cream is often provided by gelatin or dextran. The delicious jellies and jams can be moulded into beautiful shapes using China grass (sea weed, agar). Gum tragacanth gives desirable flow property to the toothpaste. Many types of gums can be obtained from plant sources. Their collection is costly and requires skilled labourers. Moreover, seasonal variations affect the quality and quantity of plant gums. The polysaccharides for scientific and industrial applications are obtained more conveniently from microbial sources due to several factors. They can be produced under controlled conditions from selected species using renewable sources and are biocompatible and biodegradable. These factors have accelerated the use of microbial gums such as pullulan, curdlan, scleroglucan, dextran and xanthan. Chemically gums are carbohydrate polymers or polysaccharides. (However, gelatin is a protein). Polysaccharides are present in all life forms. They have a number of unique chemical and physical properties. They serve as structural material to the plant kingdom, as energy reserves, adhesives and also information-transfer agents. Microbial polysaccharides are composed of regular repeating units of simple sugars like glucose, mannose, fructose, etc. These polysaccharides are sometimes termed as slime or exopolysaccharides.

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Address for Correspondence
Anil Lachke
Division of Biochemical Sciences
National Chemical
Laboratory
Pune 411008, India.
Email:lachke@dalton.ncl.res.in