Natural gums exude from trees and shrubs when they are injured or cut, then dry into hard glassy nodules, blocks or lumps. They consist largely of polysaccharides, generally soluble to some degree in water and act by increasing viscosity, thickening and stabilising the substances to which they are added. As described here, they have an astonishing variety of uses in food, medicine and manufacturing industries. This book presents a comprehensive summary of gum exudates and the plants that produce them. There are general chapters on the nature of exudates and their uses in food, confectionary, adhesives of all kinds, and medicine and medical technology. Just over half the text describes the gums, classified and grouped according to plant taxa or geographical distribution. It is striking that the Fabaceae (legumes) provide so many of these valuable products. The catalogue begins with the widely used gum arabic, from the genus Acacia (Fabaceae), and gum tragacanth from Astragalus (Fabaceae) and Sterculia (Malvaceae), but later changes to ordering by region – Asiatic, New World and miscellaneous. Taxa are described in terms of, for example, their distribution in the world, the characteristics of the plant and the exudate, and its commercial uses and economic importance. There are many photographs of plants and gums, mostly of high quality, and some reproduced fine drawings of plants. While parts of the general chapters may be valuable in the teaching of natural products, the cost of around $180 is prohibitive, making the book predominantly a catalogue and work of reference.