Yanang (Tiliacora triandra) is a vegetable used in many cuisines of the northeast of Thailand and Lao People’s
Democratic Republic. This paper reports the optimised extraction and some physicochemical characteristics
of polysaccharide gum from Yanang leaves. The optimised extraction condition was at the
leaf:water ratio of 1:6.6, 85 C, and 100 min extraction time. The major monosaccharide constituent of
Yanang gum was xylose, together with substantial amounts of other neutral sugars. The FT-IR spectra
of Yanang gum were similar to that of xylan. Yanang gum exhibited shear-thinning flow behaviour
and the extent of shear-thinning was concentration dependent. The mechanical spectra of Yanang gum
at low concentration (0.5%) were typical of semi-diluted to concentrated solutions. However, with
increasing concentration, the solution behaved like a weak gel.