What does degumming mean?
Degumming is the industrial process of removing gummy substances from a material. Its two principal applications are in textiles and in edible-oil refining. In silk production, degumming involves treating raw silk with hot, mildly alkaline water to strip away sericin, the natural protein that binds cocoon fibers together and gives unprocessed silk a harsh handle; once removed, the remaining fibroin displays silk's celebrated softness and luster, though the process can cost the fiber a substantial share of its original weight. In the oils-and-fats industry, degumming is typically the first step of refining crude vegetable oils such as soybean or rapeseed oil, using water or acids to precipitate phospholipids and other colloidal impurities that would otherwise cause clouding, foaming, or spoilage. The term belongs mainly to technical registers, appearing in textile engineering, food science, and trade documentation rather than casual conversation.
nounThe process of removing gum or gummy substances from a material, most notably the removal of sericin (silk gum) from raw silk and the removal of phospholipids and mucilaginous matter from vegetable oils during refining.
- The removal of sericin gum from raw silk by washing in hot, mildly alkaline water.
- The treatment of crude vegetable oils to remove phospholipids, gums, and other impurities as an early stage of refining.
"After degumming, the raw silk was soft, lustrous, and ready for dyeing."
"Traditional Chinese silk production relied on careful degumming to reveal the fiber's characteristic sheen."
"Water degumming removes most of the phosphatides from crude soybean oil before further refining."
Rarely pluralized; the noun is normally treated as uncountable since it denotes a process.
"Different batches required separate degummings to achieve uniform results."
Before a strand of silk can shine, it must be boiled — degumming strips away up to 30% of the fiber's weight in natural gum.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of degumming
The word derives from the prefix "de-", indicating removal or reversal, combined with "gum", which traces back through Old French "gomme" to Latin "gummi" and ultimately Greek "kommi", borrowed from an Egyptian source. "Degum" arose in English as a technical verb, and "degumming" is its verbal noun, becoming established as silk processing and later industrial oil refining developed standardized vocabulary in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Related word forms
How degumming is actually used
A technical term used chiefly in textile manufacturing and food/oil-processing industries; rare in everyday speech. Often appears attributively ("degumming process", "degumming agent").
Easily confused with degumming
"Deglutition" refers to swallowing; "degumming" has nothing to do with swallowing and instead means removing gummy substances from silk or oils.