Talk:Xanthan gum/Archive 1

Cigarette Additive?
This is tagged as a cigarette additive, but no information on its use as such is included in the article.74.137.88.47 (talk) 12:34, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Effects on blood sugar
It might be helpful to mention that research suggests xanthan gum has a beneficial effect on blood sugar, e.g. see http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/42/4/597.pdf but there are many other references: it appears that xanthan gum is helpful for diabetic people for example. The wording of the article also does mention the toxicity testing, but does not mention that the LD50 test failed to find a high enough level of xanthan gum at which 50% of the animal subjects died: in other words, it's not known to be toxic at all. Barefootliam (talk) 01:28, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Plastic
The viscosity of xanthan gum solutions decreases with higher shear rates, this is called pseudoplasticity. May someone explain what this means? --Abdull 19:52, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Imagine trying to stir a mixture of corn starch and water; it becomes more difficult the harder you stir it. Now imagine the exact opposite of that. Iroll (talk) 21:03, 8 June 2012 (UTC)

It's also called shear-thinning. It just means that its viscosity is lower when it's in motion than when it's at rest. This means that a xanthan-thickened fluid is "non-neutonian." This is a somewhat common property among hydrocolloid thickeners. Paul R. http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=1247.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.118.47.97 (talk) 15:56, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

It's a thickener, isn't it?
But the article would suggest that it's a stabiliser and not that good at thickening, due to high shear rates - which is correct? DavidFarmbrough 14:05, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

It's a thickener. Many thickeners are shear-thinning. It's weakness as a thickener is unpleasant texture with overuse. Paul R.

Changed the chemical structure to (C35H49O29)n to reflect that it is a polymer of varying chain length. I classified it as a minor edit --Quality Alison 03:01, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Just a word choice modification. changed "repeating units of five sugar units" to "repeating modules of five sugar units". Listed as minor edit. user: psilosphere

Revised the uses section. I tried to answered David's question on why and when it's working as a thickener and when you want shearing to make it thinner. It's pretty much a classic example and use for xanthan.Sigh NNNs 20:55, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Cosmetic Use. Not normally used in combination with bentone gels to make water based gels. This is usually done with synthetic polymers such as Carbomers. I think there is possibly a bit of confusion with the synergy exhibited between betonites and Carboxymethylcelluloses. Most common use is for adding stability to o/w emulsions. The chemists weapon of choice. Viscosity isn't the forte of this material. Examining the manufacturers specifications for these materials, they rarely exceed a viscosity of 1500 centipoise at 1% use in water. Compare that to values of 20K+ for materials such as carbomers Valueaddedwater 00:26, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Obfuscated: It seems that this article uses a lot of jargon for something relatively simple. The introduction does say that xanthan gum is a thickener that's a byproduct of fermentation, but it could be said more simply. And the fact that it's commonly made from fermented corn shouldn't be an aside in the health section. An article on a food additive should make the subject more transparent rather than opaque. Ahhoefel (talk) 17:49, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

But is it an emulsifier?
It is well established as an emulsion stabilizer, but I have never seen evidence that it will actually enable an emulsion on its own. If it does, there should be a citation. Paul R.


 * I agree 2603:7080:2400:F2A6:F3EE:2594:8EB6:EC83 (talk) 20:51, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

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Allergy?
In response to the citation needed tag on the suggestion that it is possible to be allergic to xanthan gum, I've done some digging. Now, there are a lot of cases out there of self-diagnosed Xanthan gum allergics, but I'd stress caution here, due to the possibility (already highlighted in the article) that these people are sensitive to a contaminant in the gum originating from its source (usually corn).

That said, I did find this article:

As I understand it, this article basically says that the category of foods that contains Xanthan gum rarely produce allergic reactions, but it has been known to happen. It cites reported allergies to tragacanth gum and one case of allergy to carrageenan (although the latter was not a food allergy, and the exposure may have been substantially higher than any plausible food use). I'm also not sure "wisegeek.com" is a credible source for the claim made (I have no reason to dispute the claim, but a better source could surely be found).

As far as I can see, there has never been a verified case of Xanthan gum allergy. The possibility simply has not been investigated by medical science, presumably because cases (if they exist at all) are exceedingly rare. Of course it's hard to prove that such an investigation has never happened, but searching the usual sources (pubmed, google scholar) turns up nothing. JulesH (talk) 18:54, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

The symptoms reported are not allergic reactions, so I changed the wording.Gigemag76 (talk) 16:04, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

An allergic reaction to xanthan gum would probably be incompatible with life. The brain cannot function without sugar. 98.208.32.105 (talk) 21:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

POV peddling
The accusation of dumping by China is completely POV. Allegations of that type are very frequently cover for protectionism and have to be treated with care. Whoever added the section to the article was scoring political points rather than presenting fact. 108.7.229.221 (talk) 16:06, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Would like to know how resistant xanthan gum is to spoilage when kept in aqueous form
Since xanthan gum is readily available to consumers nowadays, often located with other goods for gluten-free cooking, it might be of value for the public to know how susceptible it is to spoilage, i.e. whether it is nutritive for microbial or mold growth if used as a thickener in, for instance, a homemade sugar-free flavoring syrup or other liquid condiment one wishes to leave out without refrigeration. Mykstor (talk) 16:13, 27 December 2013 (UTC)