Guar Gum is a product or substance extracted from the endosperm of a Guar plant. Guar plant is largely planted in India and it’s from a family of leguminous plant. India is the largest producer and exporter of guar gum worldwide. India alone produces about 80 percent of guar gum worldwide. It produces between 1 -1.25 million tones of guar annually. Other countries that produce and export guar are Pakistan, Italy and USA. Major importers of this product are Canada, Australia and China.
To obtain Guar Gum, the guar seeds are passed through different procedures. The seeds are roasted to remove the husks. What remains after this process are the guar splits which are carefully chosen then put on another process referred to as screening. This process gets rid of unwanted particles and dust. Guar gum splits are then mixed with some comparative amount of water in a mixer to hydrate them. They are then dried up and grinded to form guar gum powder. The finer grade guar gum powder is obtained by sieving the grounded powder. The by-products of guar-husks- are used to feed the cattle. The guar meal provides high proteins.
Why India is well known producer of Guar gum
India is known as the major producer of guar gum because of many factors. One factor is the fact that India has favorable conditions for guar plant. The soils are favorable considering guar plant grows well in various soil types. India also has fertile, well-drained sandy loam soils which favors the guar seeds. The plant itself, improves the quality of the soil with the nodules in its taproots. The plant takes a short time to mature-between two and three months. They can grow in an optimal temperature of at most 30 degrees. The climate in India has most of these characteristics thus making the region a major producer of guar gum.
Different industrial requirement of guar gum and derivatives
Guar gum has various industrial uses. It is used as emulsifier, thickener, binding agent and stabilizer. It is used in food industries especially in adding the thickening agents in different foods. Guar gum increases the softness of foods like cakes and acts as a preservative. It prolongs the expiry of foods like cakes.
It is also used in processing pet foods and canning of meat. This is because it increases the glueness of the foods being processed thus reducing splashing of those foods. It is also used as a water binding and hydration agent in ice creams.
Guar gum derivatives are used as movable control substances and helps in controlling water loss, and oils. They are thus used in energy industries like petroleum industries. They can also be used in reducing friction in running machines. The cassia powder is also helps in quick hydration thus used for gas and oil drilling tools.
Guar gum can also be used in textile industries. Guar gum powder is used for textile printing. It used as a printing thickener thus giving more stickiness and toughness on a material.
Guar gum also known as goma guar is a product with great values to the farmers, manufacturers and consumers. It is a source of income to the farmers and a source of foreign exchange to India and countries that produce it. To the consumers, it is a source of protein and saves the consumer a lot of loss. This is because it preserves foods and provides proteins to animals and humans. It’s no doubt therefore that guar gum is one of the mostly used plant product worldwide.
This article has been written by Biren Patel working at Agro Gums. Agro Gums is a guar and cassia gum manufacturing company offering high quality guar gum powder, fast hydration guar gum powder, cassia powder, guar splits and guar meal to satisfy the production requirements of various industries across the world.
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