Guar Gum has several important properties which makes it invaluable to many industries including textile industry, food industry, tobacco industry and mining as well. It is an extract from ground endosperm of a Guar Plant. It is often known as Guar Beans as well. The main properties being a thickening agent, stabilizing agent, and shear viscosity.

This article is all about what Guar Gum is and how it is useful in the Tobacco Industry.

What is Guar Gum?

Guar plants, which are the source for this grow in several parts of the world, including several Asian countries like India, Pakistan. Besides which it also grows in other countries like Australia, USA, South Africa, etc. It can grow in almost any type of weather condition. Approximately 80% of the total production happens in India.

Application in the Tobacco Industry

Every tobacco product contains additives and it is these additives that make them more addictive. One of the main uses of additives is to extract nicotine from the tobacco faster; it also helps speed up the process of absorption of nicotine by lungs. The advantage of such additives is that the effect of nicotine in the brain, occurs faster.

There are several additives that make Tobacco more attractive. This includes Sugars, Menthol Cools, Levulinic acid, Candy, Cocoa and Guar Gum as well. Guar Gum and many derivatives of it are an important additive to tobacco products. It is useful in binding and wrapping tobacco in a cigarette paper. The way it works is when a cigarette is lit, the heating of guar gum generates several other compounds like furfural and diacetyl. The smell and taste of these compounds is what makes the cigarette attractive and addictive.

Important Stats and Facts for Guar Gum

There was a decline in exports in 2014.
Fall in cost saw a rise in demand in 2015.
The reduction in the oil prices affected this market as well and resulted in reduction of use of them
It was back in high demand in 2017 with market showing signs of revival.
We witnessed a boom in this market in 2018.
As per the statistics and global market analysis, it is predicted that the global market will reach 1300 Million USD by 2026.
Demand for this continues to rise in several industries; this includes the crude oil industry as well as the tobacco industry.
This trend (of increase of use) is expected to continue in the future as well, which will affect the prices.

Other Application

There are many other applications besides that in the tobacco industry. Here is a list of other applications:

It is invaluable for oil well stimulation, mud drilling, oil well fracturing.
It is useful as a deformer, synthetic polymer and surfactant.
It is useful in use of water based and brine based drilling fluids.
Useful for reduction of friction in drilling holes, thus reduces the power requirements as well.
It is a very important drilling aid in water drilling, oil well drilling and geological drilling.

Thus Guar Gum has several applications in many industries. It is useful in the food industry as an additive. It is also useful in oil well drilling, for explosives, water treatment, cosmetic industry, in bakery products, meat products, dressings and beverages. There is a gradual rise in demand for Guar Gum, which is mainly due to the many applications mentioned as well as due to the fact that it is important to the tobacco industry.

Guar Gum - Application in Tobacco Industry