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Sapodilla is a climacteric fruit and can be picked from the tree both when fully mature and before it is ripe.
For many years, the latex from the sapodilla tree called ‘chicle’ was the main ingredient of chewing gum. It contains 15% rubber and 38% resin and is tasteless. Steps to process the latex into chewing gum include drying, melting, elimination of foreign matter, mixing with other gums, sweetenersand flavors, and finally rolling into sheets and cutting into different sizes (Morton, 1987). Chicle has been increasingly substituted by synthetic gums, although countries like Mexico, Guatemala and Belize still use natural chicle.