The aim of this research is to study some functional properties and the antioxidant activity of cherry gum, collected from Serghaya and Suwayda in Syria, and to compare these features with those of Arabic gum. The values of the hydroxyl groups for the Arabic gum, Serghaya and Suwayda cherry gums were 757.1, 655.1 and 564.3 mg KOH/gm, respectively. The solubility of exudate gums ranged from 53.53 to 86.53% and was arranged as follows: Arabic gum>Serghaya cherry gum >Suwayda cherry gum. Gum solubility increased with rising the temperature. Water and oil holding capacities of cherry gums were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of Arabic gum, while their emulsifying capacity was significantly lower than that of Arabic gum. The antioxidant activity of the gum was evaluated using the DPPH scavenging activity method and reducing power method. The inhibition percentages of DPPH were 51.52%, 23.23% and 21.19% for Serghaya, Suwayda and Arabic gums, respectively. The antioxidant activities of Serghaya and Suwayda gums using the reducing power method were 753.12 and 312.93 meq ascorbic acid/100gm, whereas Arabic gum didnot exhibit any Fe+3 reducing activity. All of gum types showed similar FT-IR spectra.
