Removal of water from the crude petroleum during its extraction and refining process is one of the major problems faced by petroleum industries, so in this study a superabsorbent has been synthesized from Psyllium and acrylic acid based polymers under the influence of gamma radiations using hexamine as a crosslinker. After optimizing various reaction parameters, the optimized superabsorbent has been tested for its selective water absorption capacity from different oilwater emulsions as a function of time, temperature, pH, and NaCl concentration. The synthesized superabsorbent has been found to be highly selective toward water absorption with maximum percent swelling of 8560% in petrolwater emulsion. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011