Natural polysaccharide gum karaya (GK, Sterculia urens) is a plant exudates widely available and relatively cheap biomaterial, which is used in food industry. However, GK is insoluble in water and it limits subsequent processing and broader utilization in medicine. Different conditions for the solubilization of GK were evaluated in this work (e.g. type and concentration of hydroxide, concentration of GK dispersion and time of solubilization process) which were not published before. GK samples were compared using different types of characterization techniques such as ATR-FTIR, NMR, TGA-FTIR, DSC, SEM and rheology. Optimized conditions for successful GK solubilization proceeded with 1 mol l-1 of sodium or potassium hydroxide and 2 wt% dispersion of GK at room temperature. A novel mechanism was suggested and by this mechanism the complex plant based biopolymer can be solubilized through the careful control of its ionic environment and degree of deacetylation. Resulted water soluble GK seems to be promising biomaterial forming hydrogels useful in regenerative medicine.