The prospective uses of tree gum polysaccharides and their nanostructures in various aspects of food, water, energy, biotechnology, environment and medicine industries, have garnered a great deal of attention recently. In addition to extensive applications of tree gums in food, there are substantial non-food applications of these commercial gums, which have gained widespread attention due to their availability, structural diversity and remarkable properties as 'green' bio-based renewable materials. Tree gums are obtainable as natural polysaccharides from various tree genera possessing exceptional properties, including their renewable, biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-toxic nature and their ability to undergo easy chemical modifications. This review focuses on non-food applications of several important commercially available gums (arabic, karaya, tragacanth, ghatti and kondagogu) for the greener synthesis and stabilization of metal/metal oxide NPs, production of electrospun fibers, environmental bioremediation, bio-catalysis, biosensors, coordination complexes of metal-hydrogels, and for antimicrobial and biomedical applications. Furthermore, polysaccharides acquired from botanical, seaweed, animal, and microbial origins are briefly compared with the characteristics of tree gum exudates.

Department of Nanomaterials in Natural Sciences Institute for Nanomaterials Advanced Technologies and Innovation Technical University of Liberec Studentská 1402 2 Liberec 1 461 17 Czech Republic

Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials Department of Physical Chemistry Faculty of Science Palacký University in Olomouc Šlechtitelů 27 783 71 Olomouc Czech Republic

Water Resource Recovery Branch Water Systems Division National Risk Management Research Laboratory U S Environmental Protection Agency 26 West Martin Luther King Drive MS 483 Cincinnati Ohio 45268 USA

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