Modern chewing gum began as a failed Mexican substitute for rubber
In the 1860s the exiled Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna brought chicle, a tree gum, to New York and handed it to Thomas Adams to try as a rubber substitute. As rubber it flopped. Cut into strips and sold as chewing gum from 1871, it launched an industry.
People have chewed gum-like substances since the Neolithic. At Kierikki in Finland, archaeologists found 5,000-year-old lumps of birch bark tar still bearing tooth marks. The habit seems to have arisen independently in many cultures, a case of convergent evolution: Mayans and Aztecs used chicle, ancient Greeks chewed resin from the mastic tree, and Indigenous North Americans chewed spruce sap. Several of these resins have antiseptic properties and may have helped keep mouths healthy.
New England settlers borrowed the spruce habit, and in 1848 John B. Curtis sold the first commercial gum, made from spruce. Paraffin wax gum soon overtook it, with chewers dipping pieces in powdered sugar to keep them sweet. A dentist, William F. Semple, patented a gum in 1869 meant to clean teeth and strengthen jaws; it contained chalk and liquorice root. The Louisville pharmacist John Colgan made the first flavoured gum in the 1860s, Taffy Tolu, using balsam extract. Brands such as Chiclets followed, and American soldiers spread gum worldwide in the Second World War, where it came in their rations.
Today's gum base is a closely guarded trade secret. It combines polymers that give stretch, plasticisers that prevent brittleness, and resins that provide chew. By the 1960s American makers had switched to cheaper synthetic rubber based on butadiene. Because the base repels water, saliva dissolves the sugar and flavour but leaves the base intact, which is why gum lasts. The same property makes it attract oil, so it bonds to skin, hair and pavements, and its long polymers stretch instead of snapping when pulled. With only three to six percent moisture, gum is so stable that most countries do not require an expiry date.
Sales have slipped. Gum lost its rebellious image in the early 21st century, and some blame smartphones for fewer checkout impulse buys. During the COVID-19 pandemic American sales fell about 30 percent. A 2026 meta-analysis of 25 studies found caffeine gum gave a trivial but statistically significant boost to physical performance, with evidence graded low.
Source: Chewing gum
