Composition and Manufacture
The exact composition of gum bases is usually a trade secret, but generally consists of ingredients from the following categories:
- Elastomers: provide the elasticity or bounce, and can be natural latexes (e.g. couma macrocarpa (also called leche caspi or sorva), loquat (also called nispero), tunu, jelutong, or chicle which is still commercially produced), or synthetic rubbers (e.g. styrene-butadiene rubber, butyl rubber, polyisobutylene).
- Resins: provide a cohesive body or strength, and are most often glycerol esters of gum, terpene resins, and/or polyvinyl acetate.
- Waxes: act as softening agents and are most usually paraffin or microcrystalline wax.
- Fats: behave as plasticizers and mainly come from hydrogenated vegetable oils.
- Emulsifiers: help to hydrate, the most common being lecithin or glycerol monostearate.
- Fillers: impart texture and the most commonly used are calcium carbonate or talc.
- Antioxidants: protect from oxidation and extend shelf-life; the most common type is BHT.
Old gum bases were based on either natural elastomers such as latexes, vegetable gums like chicle, spruce gum, and mastic gum, or alternatively on waxes, e.g. paraffin wax and beeswax, but today synthetic rubbers are preferred.
Read more about this topic: Gum Base
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