Mucilage isolated from seeds of Manilkara zapota (Linn.) P. Royen syn. is a plant growing naturally in the forests of India. This mucilage is yet to be commercially exploited, and characterized as polymer. Various physicochemical methods like particle size analysis, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, gel permeation chromatography, X-ray diffraction spectrometry, zeta potential, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have been employed to characterize this gum in the present study. Particle size analyses suggest that mucilage has particle size in nanometer. Scanning electron microscopy analysis suggests that the mucilage has irregular particle size. The glass transition temperature of the gum was observed to be 138°C and 136°C by differential scanning calorimetry and differential thermal analysis, respectively. The thermogravimetric analysis suggested that mucilage had good thermal stability. The average molecular weight of mucilage was determined to be 379180, by gel permeation chromatography, while the viscosity of mucilage was observed to be 219.1 cP. The X-ray diffraction spectrometry pattern of the mucilage indicates a completely amorphous structure. Elemental analysis of the gum revealed the contents of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur to be 80.9 (%), 10.1 (%), 1.58 (%), and 512 (mg/kg), respectively. Mucilage had specific content of calcium, magnesium, potassium, lower concentrations of aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, lead, and nickel. The major functional groups identified from FT-IR spectrum include 3441？cm？1 (–OH), 1660？cm？1 (Alkenyl C–H & C=C Stretch), 1632？cm？1 (–COO–), 1414？cm？1 (–COO–), and 1219？cm？1 (–CH3CO). Analysis of mucilage by paper chromatography and 1D NMR, indicated the presence of rhamnose, xylose, arabinose, mannose, and fructose. 1. Introduction In recent years, plant derived polymers have evoked tremendous interest due to their diverse pharmaceutical applications such as diluents, binders, disintegrants in tablets, thickeners in oral liquids, protective colloids in suspensions, gelling agents in gels, and bases in suppository [1]; they are also used in cosmetics, textiles, paints, and paper-making [2]. The plant based polymers have been studied for their application in different pharmaceutical dosage forms like matrix controlled system, film coating agents, buccal films, microspheres, nanoparticles, and viscous liquid formulations like ophthalmic solutions, suspensions, and implants and their applicability and efficacy has been proven [3–5]. These have also been
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