Gum arabic
![The Acacia senegal, pictured in a medicinal handbook: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887)](/Images/godic/202501/16/Acacia_senegal_-_Köhler–s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-0045733.jpg")
![Acacia gum](/Images/godic/202501/16/Gomma_arabica5733.png")
![Gum Arabic exuding from Acacia nilotica.](/Images/godic/202501/16/Gum_Arabic_exuding5734.jpg")
![Powdered gum arabic for artists, one part gum arabic is dissolved in four parts distilled water to make a liquid suitable for adding to pigments.](/Images/godic/202501/16/Gum-arabic5734.png")
Gum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of the hardened sap of various species of the acacia tree. Originally, gum arabic was collected from Acacia nilotica which was called the "Gum arabic tree"; in the present day, gum arabic is predominantly collected from two related species, namely Acacia senegal and Vachellia (Acacia) seyal. Producers harvest the gum commercially from wild trees, mostly in Sudan (80%) and throughout the Sahel, from Senegal to Somalia—though it is historically cultivated in Arabia and West Asia.