Drug & supplement interaction

Gum Arabic + Nivolumab

Nivolumab brand name: Opdivo.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 20, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Gum Arabic and Nivolumab in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the label for Nivolumab states a food rule worth keeping to, and the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Gum Arabic and Nivolumab

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Nivolumab and Gum Arabic in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Gum Arabic safety at a glance

Gum Arabic overall Generally safe Generally recognized as safe as a food additive, though high supplemental doses may cause digestive upset.
Pregnancy Use caution Amounts found in foods are likely fine, but supplemental amounts have not been well studied, so check with your doctor.
Breastfeeding Use caution Food amounts are likely fine, but there is not enough information on supplement doses while breastfeeding.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Nivolumab and Gum Arabic? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Nivolumab

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Nivolumab is filed under a single classification — antineoplastics. Gum Arabic has documented interactions with 2 drug classes — the most serious being amoxicillin (amoxil, trimox) (moderate) and oral drugs (moderate) — and none of Nivolumab’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Gum Arabic Does Interact With Other Medications

Gum Arabic has 2,022 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Moderate 2,022 No known interaction 808 (incl. Nivolumab)
Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Gum Arabic

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Gum Arabic. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Gum Arabic and Nivolumab May Share Several of the Same Side Effects

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do.

  • Stomach upset Additional detail

    Gum Arabic

    “Orally, gum arabic can cause minor gastrointestinal disturbances such as abdominal bloating, flatulence, nausea, vomiting, cramping, and mild diarrhea. These effects occurred in 15%, 82%, and 90% of subjects respectively in one study. They may subside with continued use within 2 weeks.”

    Gum Arabic · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in diarrhea.

    6 sources cited
    1. 8072. Jensen CD, Spiller GA, Gates JE, et al. The effect of acacia gum and a water-soluble dietary fiber mixture on blood lipids in humans. J Am Coll Nutr 1993;12:147-54. PubMed
    2. 18237. Babiker R, Merghani TH, Elmusharaf K, et al. Effects of gum Arabic ingestion on body mass index and body fat percentage in healthy adult females: two-arm randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind trial. Nutr J 2012;11:111. PubMed
    3. 99098. Babiker R, Elmusharaf K, Keogh MB, Banaga AS, Saeed AM. Metabolic effect of gum Arabic (Acacia senegal) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM): randomized, placebo controlled double blind trial. Functional Foods in Health and Disease. 2017;7(3): DOI
    4. 105038. Ali NE, Kaddam LA, Alkarib SY, et al. Gum Arabic (Acacia Senegal) Augmented Total Antioxidant Capacity and Reduced C-Reactive Protein among Haemodialysis Patients in Phase II Trial. Int J Nephrol. 2020;2020:7214673.
    5. 105040. Mortensen A, Aguilar F, Crebelli R, et al. Re-evaluation of acacia gum (E 414) as a food additive. EFSA J. 2017;15(4):e04741. PubMed
    6. 108051. Larson R, Nelson C, Korczak R, et al. Acacia Gum Is Well Tolerated While Increasing Satiety and Lowering Peak Blood Glucose Response in Healthy Human Subjects. Nutrients 2021;13(2):618. PubMed

    Nivolumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Nivolumab. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Diarrhea / Vomiting / Nausea reported in 5.4% of FDA reports for Nivolumab Additional detail

    Gum Arabic

    “Orally, gum arabic seems to be generally well tolerated.

    Most Common Adverse Effects:

    Orally: Abdominal bloating, flatulence, mild diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.”

    Gum Arabic · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in diarrhea.

    Nivolumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Nivolumab, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Gum Arabic but not commonly for Nivolumab: bloating or gas.

Effects for Nivolumab come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Gum Arabic come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 96,645 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Nivolumab that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

How to take them

Some Nivolumab Products Have a Food Rule — Gum Arabic Should Not Break It

At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach. Most supplements — Gum Arabic included — are taken with a meal, so the easy mistake is swallowing both together at breakfast. Where that rule applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Gum Arabic to a meal later in the day.

This may not be true of your version. Food instructions belong to the product, not the ingredient: two Nivolumab products can carry different directions, and extended-release forms often differ from immediate-release ones. The label we read is quoted below — check the directions on your own box or bottle, or ask your pharmacist, for how to take the exact product you were given.

Table 2: Recommended Dosages of Intravenous OPDIVO in Combination with Other Therapeutic Agents Indication Recommended OPDIVO Dosage Duration of Therapy Unresectable or metastatic melanoma 1 mg/kg every 3 weeks with ipilimumab 3 mg/kg In combination with ipilimumab for a maximum of 4 doses or until unacceptable toxicity, whichever occurs earlier Adult patients and pediatric patients aged 12 years

From the Dosage and Administration section of the FDA label we read for Nivolumab — where that label names a specific product, the instruction is that product's. Read the label on DailyMed ›

A food rule is not an interaction — it is about how much of the medicine you absorb. The directions that came with your own product, and your pharmacist, outrank anything on this page.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Nivolumab

This page covers Gum Arabic only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Nivolumab page lists 1 supplement it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: American Pawpaw (minor).

By severity: 1 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Nivolumab page

“Nivolumab (Opdivo) is an immunotherapy infusion that trains the body's own immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, the kind of drug you might expect to carry a long list of supplement warnings. It does not.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Nivolumab interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Gum Arabic as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 3 real supplement products containing Gum Arabic, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Gum Arabic. Even though Gum Arabic itself has no known interaction with Nivolumab, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Gum Arabic and Nivolumab Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Gum Arabic
Top half

#473 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Nivolumab
Top 25%

#292 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Gum Arabic reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 20, 2026. The Gum Arabic and Nivolumab records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Gum Arabic

What is Gum Arabic?

Gum Arabic
  • Digestive and gut health
  • Source of soluble fiber
  • Constipation or bowel regularity
  • Prebiotic support
  • Cholesterol support
  • Blood sugar support

Gum arabic is a soluble dietary fiber from the acacia tree that is widely used as a safe food additive and is sometimes taken as a supplement for digestive health and as a prebiotic. Early studies suggest possible benefits for gut bacteria, cholesterol, and blood sugar, but the evidence is limited, and high doses can cause gas and bloating. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor before using it as a supplement.

Acacia senegal · Fabaceae · Dried gum (sap exudate) from the trunk and branches · Powder, soluble fiber supplement, capsules; also used as a food additive (stabilizer/emulsifier)

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Gum Arabic is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Gum Arabic record says about it on its own.

Gum Arabic: dosing

There is no official, standardized supplement dose for gum arabic. The amounts used in research studies have varied, and it is also commonly consumed in small amounts as a food ingredient.If you choose to take it as a fiber supplement, follow the directions on the product label, and consider starting with a lower amount to see how your body responds.

From our Gum Arabic monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Gum Arabic monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Nivolumab Injection

What Is Nivolumab Injection Used For?

Brand name: Opdivo

Opdivo (nivolumab) is used to treat many types of cancer in adults, and some in patients 12 years and older. It can be used alone or in combination with other therapies depending on the cancer type and stage. Cancers it treats include melanoma (including after surgery to reduce the chance of the cancer coming back), non-small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), classical Hodgkin lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer), colorectal cancer with specific genetic features (MSI-H or dMMR), hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), esophageal cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and gastric (stomach) cancer.

Some uses require the tumor to test positive for a protein called PD-L1, and some are specific to certain stages of disease or prior treatments received. Your oncologist will determine which use applies to your situation.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Nivolumab

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (96,645 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Malignant neoplasm progression 9,878 reports
Diarrhea 5,251 reports
Fatigue 4,195 reports
Fever 3,721 reports
Nausea 3,182 reports
See full Nivolumab Injection drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Gum Arabic

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Gum Arabic — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
2,022Moderate
0Minor
807No known interaction
2,022 Moderate 807 No interaction
Moderate

2,022 interactions

Showing 60 of 2,022 moderate interactions — see all 2,022 on the Gum Arabic page.

No interaction 807 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Gum Arabic against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 807 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Gum Arabic list.

See the full Gum Arabic interactions page
See every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Gum Arabic References

The 8 references that drive our Gum Arabic monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. Jensen CD, Spiller GA, Gates JE, et al. The effect of acacia gum and a water-soluble dietary fiber mixture on blood lipids in humans. J Am Coll Nutr 1993;12:147-54. PubMed
  2. Eltayeb IB, Awad AI, Elderbi MA, Shadad SA. Effect of gum arabic on the absorption of a single oral dose of amoxicillin in healthy Sudanese volunteers. J Antimicrob Chemother 2004;54:577-8. PubMed
  3. Babiker R, Merghani TH, Elmusharaf K, et al. Effects of gum Arabic ingestion on body mass index and body fat percentage in healthy adult females: two-arm randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind trial. Nutr J 2012;11:111. PubMed
  4. Babiker R, Elmusharaf K, Keogh MB, Banaga AS, Saeed AM. Metabolic effect of gum Arabic (Acacia senegal) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM): randomized, placebo controlled double blind trial. Functional Foods in Health and Disease. 2017;7(3): DOI
  5. Beneke CE, Viljoen AM, Hamman JH. Polymeric plant-derived excipients in drug delivery. Molecules. 2009;14(7):2602-20. PubMed
  6. Ali NE, Kaddam LA, Alkarib SY, et al. Gum Arabic (Acacia Senegal) Augmented Total Antioxidant Capacity and Reduced C-Reactive Protein among Haemodialysis Patients in Phase II Trial. Int J Nephrol. 2020;2020:7214673.
  7. Mortensen A, Aguilar F, Crebelli R, et al. Re-evaluation of acacia gum (E 414) as a food additive. EFSA J. 2017;15(4):e04741. PubMed
  8. Larson R, Nelson C, Korczak R, et al. Acacia Gum Is Well Tolerated While Increasing Satiety and Lowering Peak Blood Glucose Response in Healthy Human Subjects. Nutrients 2021;13(2):618. PubMed

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Gum Arabic and Nivolumab Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Gum Arabic with Nivolumab?
We do not list a known interaction between Gum Arabic and Nivolumab. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Gum Arabic and Nivolumab have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to 4 of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
Should I take Gum Arabic and Nivolumab at the same time of day?
At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach, and supplements are usually taken with a meal — so taking them together at breakfast is the easy mistake. Where that applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Gum Arabic to a meal later in the day. Food instructions belong to the product rather than the ingredient, so check the directions on your own box. This is about absorption, not an interaction.
How was the Gum Arabic and Nivolumab combination checked?
Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Nivolumab is filed under 1 classification, and Gum Arabic has documented interactions with 2 drug classes — none of Nivolumab's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.
Does Gum Arabic interact with any other medications?
Yes. Gum Arabic has 2,022 documented drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.
Does Nivolumab interact with any supplements?
Yes. Nivolumab has documented interactions with 1 supplement in our database — Gum Arabic is not one of them. The Nivolumab interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Gum Arabic monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Nivolumab Injection drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Nivolumab supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 8 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Nivolumab and Gum Arabic?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.