Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. VI St. Louis, Mo., June, 1918 No. 6 
THE CHEWING GUM TREE 
One of the plants in the economic house which always 
attracts the attention of children as well as some older people, 
is the sapodilla, or chewing gum tree (Achras Sapota). It is 
a native of tropical America and the West Indies and is gen- 
erally cultivated in the tropics. The wood, called by the 
natives “the wood of eternal life,” is very hard, with a per- 
fectly straight grain, and is used for rafters in buildings, and 
the fruit, which resembles the persimmon both before and 
after it is ripe, is much relished. But it is the dried milky 
juice of the sapodilla tree which makes it of so much com- 
mercial importance. This juice, known locally as “chicle” 
(the native word for juice, now universally applied to the 
product of the sapodilla), is collected during the rainy season, 
when it flows most freely. The native laborer makes a series 
of v-shaped incisions in the bark, being careful not to cut too 
deeply, and the milk-like juice flows into a canvas bag or 
other receptacle at the base of the tree. Contact with the air 
speedily thickens it as well as changing it to a deep yellow 
hue. The thickened juice is collected daily and removed 
to camp, where it is boiled and kneaded to remove the super- 
flous moisture. By this time it is like fresh taffy and gray 
in color and is ready to be molded into square blocks for 
shipment. 
The raw product is imported into this country from 
Mexico, British Honduras, Venezuela, Central America, and 
Canada, the latter being supplied from certain British pos- 
sessions. After the chicle reaches the manufacturer it is first 
chopped into fine particles, then dried, and finally boiled 
down in vacuum pans to further purify it and remove any 
natural moisture. Sweetening and flavoring ingredients 
having been added, the dough is kneaded, rolled, cut into 
strips, and wrapped in the regulation manner. All these 
operations are accomplished by machinery. W hile orig- 
inally the natural gums of spruce, sweet gum, tamarack, 
es and other trees were resorted to for the basis of chew- 
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