also gives us “masticate.” Europeans and
North Americans chewed the relatively harsh
resin of spruce trees; and the Maya chewed
chicle, the latex of the sapodilla tree (Achras
sapote), ten centuries before it was
commercialized in New York City. The idea
of mixing gum with sugar goes back to the
early Arab sugar traders, who used the
exudation of certain kinds of acacia, a
substance now known as gum arabic. It and
gum tragacanth are slightly soluble and
eventually dissolve when chewed; they were
used in early medicine as carriers that would
release drugs slowly. This is still one of the
purposes of chewing gum, which are to
release a pleasant flavor for some time while
giving the jaw muscles something to do and
stimulating a cleansing flow of saliva.
Gum in America The history of modern
chewing gums begins in 1869, when a New
York inventor by the name of Thomas Adams