Q.What are gums made of? Is Fevicol different?

Gums are natural substances produced by plants. In the way biologists classify the products of a cell, gums belong to the secondary metabolites — the large group of specialised plant products that also includes alkaloids, essential oils, pigments, scents and spices. Chemically they are natural carbohydrate polymers, long chains built from sugar units, which is why they are sticky and swell in water. …

When the products found inside plant, fungal and microbial cells are sorted out, two broad kinds turn up. Some are the everyday primary metabolites with well-known roles in growth and functioning. But plants also make thousands of additional compounds of a very different kind — the secondary metabolites. Familiar examples of this group include alkaloids, flavonoids, rubber, essential oils, pigments, scents, spices and gums.

So gums sit squarely in this secondary-metabolite family. They are produced by plants and are natural in origin. Chemically, a gum is a carbohydrate substance — a polymer, meaning a long molecule made by stringing together many small sugar units, much like the other polysaccharides plants build. This polymeric, sugar-based nature is what gives gums their characteristic ability to swell in water and to act as a sticky, binding material. Many secondary metabolites like this are directly useful to people, and gums are a good example of a plant product put to everyday use. …

Method: Classifying a Natural Product, Then Contrasting with a Synthetic Look-Alike

When a question pairs a natural substance with a familiar man-made product and asks "is X different?", the right approach is to first correctly classify the natural substance within the biology syllabus's own categories, and only then draw the contrast — otherwise the comparison ends up being about stickiness or appearance instead of the biology.

For gums, the classification step is to recall that plant cells produce two broad categories of compounds: primary metabolites (with well-known metabolic roles) and secondary metabolites (a large, diverse group including alkaloids, essential oils, pigments, and gums). Placing gums correctly in the secondary-metabolite category, and then noting their specific chemical nature (carbohydrate polymers — long chains of sugar units), gives you the real biological answer to "what are gums made of." …