The guar or cluster bean is most likely native to India, where the young
beans are used as a vegetable. They are also used as a livestock feed, and
for producing a guar gum, which is used as a thickener and emulsifier in
commercial food processing. Guar gum has almost 8 times the thickening power
as cornstarch, and is used in dressings, sauces, milk products, and baking
mixes. It is also used in paper manufacturing, textiles, printing, cosmetics
and pharmaceuticals.
Still another definition: Guar gum is extracted from the seed of Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba, an annual leguminous plant originating from India and
Pakistan, also cultivated in the United States. The 'Guar' legume plant is
extremely drought resistant and thrives in semiarid regions where most plants
perish. It grows best in sandy soils, in areas of West, Northwest India and
parts of Pakistan which are ideal for it's farming. Jodhpur City in the North
Western state of Rajasthan in India is the most important processing centre
of Guar Gum and contributes approximately 40% of the world's Guar Gum supply.

Guar gum is an emulsifier, thickener, and stabilizer approved for use in a
wide range of foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It is sold as a white to
yellowish odorless powder, which is available in different viscosities and
different granulometries depending on the desired viscosity. Its viscosity is
a function of temperature, time, and concentration. One advantageous property
of guar gum is that it thickens without the application of heat. Guar Gum has
the following properties, which make it useful in variety of applications.

*   Easy solubility in cold and hot water.
*   Film forming property.
*   Resistance to oils, greases and solvents.
*   Better thickening agent.
*   Water binding capacity.
*   High viscosity
*   Functioning at low temperatures

Namaste, Liz
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