Dehulled meals from the tropical legumes Detarium microcarpum and Mucuna flagellipes are used as food thickeners. Isolation and characterization of free sugars and viscogenic mucilaginous polysaccharides in the meals of these 2 legumes are reported. Alcohol extraction of dehulled meals indicated that sucrose was the predominant free sugar, with glucose, fructose, raffinose and stachyose also being detected. Viscogenic mucilaginous polysaccharides were extracted from the alcohol-insoluble residues with 10% trichloroacetic acid. On analysis using anion exchange and gel permeation chromatographies, the polysaccharides were demonstrated to be xyloglucans consisting of a 1,4-linked D-glucan backbone with 1,6-linked D-xylose branch residues and some non-reducing terminal glucose moieties. The D. microcarpum polysaccharide exhibited a relatively high degree of branching.