In the present research, grafting of acrylamide monomer onto a water-soluble food grade polysaccharide, Kundoor mucilage, initiated by ceric ion in aqueous medium has been studied under N-2 atmosphere. Ceric ion initiated solution polymerization was found to be satisfactory for the formation of copolymer. The effect of monomer concentration, initiator concentration, reaction time, and temperature, in terms of grafting efficiency (%GE) and per- cent of grafting (%PG), have been investigated. The graft copolymers were characterized by FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.