Two Rapid Methods for the Analysis of Metallic Ions in Gum Arabic.

For a more effective control of gum arabic, it has been necessary to develop an economic rapid method for analyzing the gum for metallic constituents. As a result, there were developed two distinct methods for this analysis: (1) A Spectrographic procedure of differentiation by which the metallic ions are calculated individually. (2) A Colorimetric integrating procedure in which all the ions are calculated as a unit. Although the spectrographic method takes longer than the colorimetric procedure, it is superior inasmuch as a complete qualitative analysis is visible on the film and any element is readily detected, whether it is suspected or not. Also, from the same film the percentage of any detected element may be immediately calculated. The following elements of interest are: Calcium, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Silicon, and Manganese.