of the type in which the karaya gum will not disperse or dissolve the amount of alcohol used for suspending the karaya gum can vary within wide limits there must be enough alcohol present to provide a suitable suspension of the karaya gum and also a sufficient quantity to dissolve the amount of reagent required for the treatment a suitable reagent soluble in the alcohol is added to the karaya gum suspension the reagents are of the type that will react with the functional groups of the karaya gum via a condensation reaction due to the fact that the exact composition of karaya gum is not known the nature of the chemical change in the karaya gum when treated with the reagents cannot be ascertained in addition it is impossible to predict what reagents will produce the required change in the karaya gum so that the gum when used in extrudable plastic priming compositions will have an improved effect upon extrudability and pot life of the composition over a similar composition utilizing untreated karaya gum the effectiveness of a given reagent must be ascertained experimentally on a trial and error basis the preferred group of reagents which demonstrated an ability to successfully treat karaya gum include tannic acid benzoic acid sorbic acid gluconic acid and gluconic acid d lactone the time and temperature at which the treatment is carried out depends upon the particular reagent as some are faster acting than others generally it has been found that some will react at room temperature while others will react better if they are treated at the reflux temperature of the alcohol it has been found that the use of an.