Guar Bean (Cyamopsis tetragonolobus) is an annual legume in the family Fabaceae. It is primarily grown in Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India and Pakistan, and also grown in smaller scale in the US, Australia, China, and Africa. It is also known as Guwar Bean, Guvar bean, Gum Bean, Guarkernmehl, Guaran, Gawaar, or Cluster bean. Apart from being processed as Guar gum, guar bean can be eaten as a green bean, fed to cattle, or used as a green manure. India produces about 80% of the world production of guar gum.
Guar bean plant, up to 2.8 m tall, is drought-tolerant and thrives in semi-arid regions. It has a growing season of 14-16 weeks, and grows best in full sun, moderately flashing rainfalls, and well-drained sandy soil. The crop is generally sown after the monsoon in the late July to early August, and is harvested in late October to early November. Too much rain can cause the plant to produce more leaves with fewer number of pods or the number of seeds per pod, thus affects the size and yield of seeds. Depending to the monsoon rainfall, the total size of Guar crop varies from year to year.
The flower buds start out white and change to light pink as the flowers open, later turning into deep purple. These are followed by fleshy seed pods which ripen and harvested in summer. The seed pods usually grow in clusters, thus the common name cluster bean. After harvesting, the pods are sun-dried, and later beaten off to release the seeds from the seed pods.
Guar bean is a source of guar gum (also known as guaran). It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum, in the form of pale, free-flowing, off-white colored, coarse to fine ground powder. Guar gum is a galactomannan (a polysaccharide composed of the sugars galactose and mannose), forming a gel in water. Guar gum and locust bean gum (made from carob seeds) are commonly used as stabilizers and thickening agent in food, especially in ice-cream to improve texture and reduce ice-cream meltdown, and also in cheese and cold-meat processing. The gum is also used in soups, candies, and yogurt.
Guar gum has the highest usage across a broad spectrum of food, medicine and commercial industries, due to its low and stable price. It is used as astabilizer because it can prevent solid particles from setting out of a mixture, as an emulsifier to prevent oil droplets from sticking together, and is used as a thickener in toothpastes and shampoos.
In textile industries, polyester fibers and cottons are dipped in a solution of guar gum to give them a polished coating before the weaving process. In the paper making industry, guar gum helps improve the sheet formation and make the surface of the sheets more receptive to ink. Guar gum is used to waterproof explosive powders in the explosives industry, and as a binder in the pharmaceutical industry, sticking the ingredient together in pills.
Guar gum has been helpful in relieving constipation for chronic sufferers from diseases such as colitis and Crohn's disease. It helps lower blood serum cholesterol and increase the absoption of calcium.
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