Peach Gum
Peach Gum is the dried exudate that forms on the trunk and branches of peach and related Prunus trees, principally Prunus persica, collected as hardened amber nodules and sold as a traditional Chinese food ingredient.
Chemically it is a branched acidic polysaccharide of the arabinogalactan type, built from galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose and glucuronic acid, with a small protein fraction bound to the carbohydrate. The tree produces it as a wound response, the same gummosis mechanism that yields gum arabic from acacia, and the composition varies with tree age, cultivar and season, which is why the material is traded by visual grade rather than by assay.
The physical form is what decides how it is used. Dry nodules are glassy, pale yellow to deep amber, brittle and largely insoluble in cold water. Soaking for several hours to overnight swells them into a soft translucent gel of many times the original volume, and that swollen gel, not a dissolved solution, is what goes into the pot. It holds its shape through gentle simmering, gives a slippery mouthfeel and contributes almost no flavour of its own, so it is used as a texture element rather than as a thickener dosed into a formulation.
We source bulk Peach Gum from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shandong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Thickener / Hydrocolloid
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Irregular glassy nodules, pale yellow to amber |
| Odour and Taste | Faint characteristic, free from mould or musty notes |
| Identification | Swells to translucent gel on soaking, sugar profile positive for arabinose and galactose |
| Swelling Ratio | ≥ 8 times original volume after 12 h soaking |
| Moisture | ≤ 14% |
| Total Ash | ≤ 4.0% |
| Acid Insoluble Ash | ≤ 1.0% |
| Foreign Matter, bark and sand | ≤ 1.0% |
| Lead | ≤ 2.0 mg/kg |
| Arsenic | ≤ 1.0 mg/kg |
| Total Plate Count | ≤ 10,000 cfu/g |
| Yeast and Mould | ≤ 500 cfu/g |
| E. coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Peach gum is graded by appearance rather than by chemical specification. The top sorting is large, pale, translucent nodules with little embedded bark, described in the trade as crystal or golden grade; lower sortings are darker, cloudier, smaller and carry more bark, sand and insect debris, and are cheaper because they need more cleaning and picking before use.
Beyond the visual sort the practical variables are cleanliness, moisture, swelling ratio after soaking and freedom from adulteration with cheaper tree gums. Some suppliers offer pre-cleaned or washed and re-dried nodules, and a small quantity of milled or instant powder is produced for beverage and dessert premixes, but the whole nodule remains the dominant traded form.
Applications
- Chinese sweet dessert soups, where soaked nodules are simmered with rock sugar, red dates and lotus seed as the texture element
- Snow fungus and papaya desserts, paired with tremella for a layered gelatinous mouthfeel
- Bottled and canned dessert drinks, where visible swollen pieces are suspended as a particulate
- Bubble tea and dessert toppings, as a chewy translucent inclusion alongside tapioca pearls
- Vegetarian and vegan desserts, providing a gelatinous texture without animal gelatin
- Congee and savoury soups in some regional cooking, added for body and mouthfeel
- Traditional tonic preparations, where it is consumed as a soluble fibre alongside herbal ingredients
- Jelly and pudding products, in combination with gelling agents that set the surrounding phase
China Manufacturers of Peach Gum
Top Peach Gum manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Peach gum has no additive number and is treated as a food, not as a food additive. In the United States it is sold as a traditional imported food ingredient, without a specific FDA food additive regulation or a published GRAS notice, and imports are handled under the general food safety and labelling requirements that apply to any dried plant product, including foreign matter and sanitation criteria.
In the European Union peach gum has no E number and is not covered by the food additive framework. Because a significant history of consumption in the Union before 1997 is difficult to establish, a preparation of this kind may fall within the scope of the novel food regulation, and that question should be settled before placing it on the EU market. JECFA has not published a specification monograph for peach gum and it is not listed in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives, so the applicable controls are the general ones for dried plant foods rather than additive purity criteria.
Manufacturing Process
There is no factory synthesis. The gum is harvested by hand from orchard and wild peach trees, where it accumulates at bark splits, pruning wounds and insect borings over weeks or months. Collectors scrape the hardened nodules from the bark, sometimes assisting the flow by scoring the trunk, and the crop is seasonal and dependent on tree health.
Downstream processing is cleaning rather than conversion. Raw nodules are sun dried to stabilise them, then sorted by hand or by optical and screen sorting to remove bark, sand, gravel and insect matter. Better grades are washed briefly and re-dried, since prolonged washing swells and ruins the nodules. The dried material is graded by size and colour, screened for foreign matter, passed over a metal detector and packed dry. Because the product is a raw agricultural collection with no thermal kill step, microbiological load and physical foreign matter are the two quality parameters that actually separate lots.
