Gums from the dried leaves of Abelmoschus esculentus was extracted and evaluated as a suspending agent in cotrimoxazole suspension then characterized based on water solubility, swelling index, ...hydration capacity, proximate and elemental analysis. Standard gums such as betonite, tragacanth and sodium CMC were used for comparison and the values of the swelling index obtained were 1.83, 1.25, 1.40 and 12.40 for A. esculentus, and respectively for other suspending agents while the hydration capacity were 3.70, 1.80, 3.80 and 9.46 respectively as in swelling index. Proximate analysis of the A. esculenta leaf gum shows presence of moisture (12.20), ash (19.70), carbohydrate (16.67), protein (48.13), lipid (1.80) and fiber (1.51). The metal analysis reveals the presence of Fe, Pb, Mg, Ca, Na and K with values of lead obtained (2.55mg/kg). Cotrimoxazole suspension was formulated with percentage compositions of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0%w/v of the suspending agents and evaluated for properties as: rheology, viscosity, sedimentation volume, redispersibillity and pH. Sodium CMC was observed to having consistent superior activity over the other gums in all parameters evaluated while the A. esculentus gum depicted behavior comparable to bentonite and tragacanth.
