Guar Gum Powder

Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. It is typically produced as a free-flowing, off-white powder.

Guar gum comes from the endosperm of the seed of the legume plantCyamopsis tetragonolobus. Cyamopsis tetragonolobus is an annual plant, grown in arid regions of India as a food crop for animals. India is native of guar or cluster bean where it is used as a vegetable. From hundreds of years Guar has been used as vegetable in India. It is also used as a cattle food, and as a green manure crop in agriculture.

The guar plant, also known as a cluster plant, grows primarily in the northern regions of India. It thrives on the drought monsoon cycles present in those areas. The plants are harvested after the monsoon season and the seeds are allowed to dry in the sun. The seeds are then manually or mechanically separated and processed into a flour or sold as split seeds. Guar gum is an important cash crop for the Indian economies.

Guar gum can best be described as a natural food thickener. Guar gum is said to have significantly more thickening ability than cornstarch, at a fraction of the cost. This has made guar gum a popular additive in products such as puddings and ice creams. Until recently, guar gum was also an ingredient in non-prescription diet pills designed to create a sense of fullness.

While consumers may balk at such exotic ingredients as locust bean gum, carageenan and guar gum, the truth is many of our ice creams, puddings and canned sauces would be fairly inedible without them. Guar gum is not just a thickening agent, but a binder and plasticizer as well. When untreated ice cream melts and refreezes, grainy ice crystals often form. Guar gum has the natural ability to bind with water molecules, preventing them from forming the unwanted crystals. Processed foods with creamy textures are primarily held together with binders such as guar gum. Without a binder, the individual ingredients might separate into a watery mess.