Introduction
An exudate is a liquid secreted by an organism through pores, wound or cut by a method known as exuding. In plants exudates include saps, latex, nectar, resin and gums (Power et al., 2010). These plant exudates are used in a broad range of food and pharmaceutical product in addition to several other technical applications. As a result, they form an essential group of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) and are therefore a foundation to multi-billion industries worldwide. These plant exudates especially gums are a major part of world trade and this is very telling to the potential value addition of NWFPs at various stages all the way from harvesting to their end uses. (FAO, 1995)
Other than essential oils which provide a range of flavours and fragrances, latexes, resins and gums are the most widely used and traded produce of non-wood forest products that is excluding things that are used up directly as foods, …show more content…
Gum arabic was exported as early the 17th century BC (Whistler and BeMiller, 1993) and is exported today making it a multi-billion-dollar industry to date. It was used by Egyptians for mineral pigments and used in the flaxen wrappings to preserve mummies (Whistler and BeMiller, 1993). In modern times especially between early 50s to the late 90s, Sudan was the main source of gum arabic with the Kordofan province of Sudan which produces over 90% of the world’s supply (Joseleau and Ullmann, 1990) with a production figure of 40,000 tons being achieved in 1996 (Islam et al., 1997). However, the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region (where more than 200 000 dead and over 2 million displaced from their homes) and Sudan splitting in two countries Northern and Southern Sudan this production of Gum arabic has significantly reduced to under 50% (world Bank,
An exudate is a liquid secreted by an organism through pores, wound or cut by a method known as exuding. In plants exudates include saps, latex, nectar, resin and gums (Power et al., 2010). These plant exudates are used in a broad range of food and pharmaceutical product in addition to several other technical applications. As a result, they form an essential group of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) and are therefore a foundation to multi-billion industries worldwide. These plant exudates especially gums are a major part of world trade and this is very telling to the potential value addition of NWFPs at various stages all the way from harvesting to their end uses. (FAO, 1995)
Other than essential oils which provide a range of flavours and fragrances, latexes, resins and gums are the most widely used and traded produce of non-wood forest products that is excluding things that are used up directly as foods, …show more content…
Gum arabic was exported as early the 17th century BC (Whistler and BeMiller, 1993) and is exported today making it a multi-billion-dollar industry to date. It was used by Egyptians for mineral pigments and used in the flaxen wrappings to preserve mummies (Whistler and BeMiller, 1993). In modern times especially between early 50s to the late 90s, Sudan was the main source of gum arabic with the Kordofan province of Sudan which produces over 90% of the world’s supply (Joseleau and Ullmann, 1990) with a production figure of 40,000 tons being achieved in 1996 (Islam et al., 1997). However, the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region (where more than 200 000 dead and over 2 million displaced from their homes) and Sudan splitting in two countries Northern and Southern Sudan this production of Gum arabic has significantly reduced to under 50% (world Bank,