band was found at approximately the 800 cm u2212 1 wavelength these findings further indicate the presence of sulfur inasmuch as these novel absorption bands represent a symmetrical c u2014 o u2014 s vibration associated with a c u2014 o u2014 so 3 group such a finding indicates the incorporation of the sulfonic groups to sulfated psyllium derivatives sp1 sp2 and sp3 it is also to be noted that the stronger peaks at the approximate wavelengths of 1224 85 and 800 cm u2212 1 respectively for sp3 indicate that it has higher sulfur content than sp2 which has higher sulfur content than sp1 the introduction of the negatively charged sulfonic groups to psyllium molecules was further confirmed by an examination of the surface charge u03b6 potential for each of sp1 sp2 and sp3 when compared to that of starting sample psy specifically the u03b6 potential of psy sp1 sp2 and sp3 were u2212 17 3 u2212 30 u2212 39 and u2212 44 7 mv respectively results not shown fig2 a 2d examines the morphological properties of the starting psyllium preparation psy and the sulfated derivatives sp1 sp2 and sp3 by scanning electron microscopy sem the comparative results of the sem results of fig2 2d clearly show that sulfation has a dramatic impact on the morphology of psyllium as is shown in fig2 a the starting psyllium sample psy includes filamentous structures containing regular strands forming a network like structure on the surface of the starting psyllium preparation in contrast to fig2 a however the sulfated samples sp1 sp2 and sp3.