ABOUT GUAR

ABOUT GUAR

Guar is a very old cultivated plant, native to India and Pakistan. It is also grown in Texas (USA), Malawi, S. Africa and The Sudan in small quantities. It is an annual crop and is sown at the end of July and harvested in November. The pods are 5-8 cms long and are used as a green vegetable or as a cattle feed besides Guar Gum is derived from the seeds of the Guar plant ‘Cyamopsis Tetragonalobus”. It is an annual plant, about 4 feet high, vertically stalked,with large leaves and clusters of bean-like pods. Each pod is about 5-8 cms long and has on an average 6-9 small greyish-white pea shaped seeds. Guar is a hardy , drought resistant bush which grows well in the semi-arid areas of west and north-west India and parts of Pakistan.

Guar grows best in sandy soils. It needs moderate, intermittent rainfall with lots of sunshine. Too much precipitation can cause the plant to become “leafy” and reduce the number of pods and seeds per pods which affects the size and yield.

The crop is sown after the first rains in July and harvested in late October. The pods are then sun – dried, manually separated from the seeds and supplied to the industry for processing. Tender green Guar pods are consumed as a vegetable in India.

The Guar seed is dicotyledonous having a diameter of about 2.0-3.0 mm. The seeds make-up about 60%-70% of the pod weight. The germ is completely enveloped by the two halves of the endosperm which is the source of the gum. The tough seed skin or husk is of a fibrous nature, composed of compressed thin layers of cellulosic material. The gum is commercially extracted from the seeds essentially by a mechanical process of roasting, differential attrition, sieving and polishing. The seeds are broken and the germ is separated from the endosperm. Two halves of the endosperm are obtained from each seed and are known as Undehusked Guar Splits. When the fine layer of fibrous material, which forms the husk, is removed and separated from the endosperm halves by polishing, Refined Guar Splits are obtained. The husk and germ are rich in protein form a valuable cattle-feed. The larger germ particles have a high content of oil and albuminoids (o&a)- Min 50%. The smaller germ particles have an o&a content of about 40% and the husk about 25%.

The refined Guar Splits are then treated and finished into powders by a variety of routes and processing techniques depending upon the end product desired. High purity Guar gums for foods, feeds and pharmaceutical applications can be produced in many different viscosities, hydration rates and particle size distributions to suit specific applications. Various modified/derivatised Guar gums such as hydrolysed, hydroxyalkyl, carboxyalkyl, oxidised, sulphated, borated, cationic and various combinations of these are commercially useful for a number of industrial applications.

It is mainly grown in areas of India (Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab), Pakistan, Sudan, and USA. India produces 6.0-7.5 lakh tons of guar annually. It contributes to around 80% share in the world’s total production. In India, Rajasthan and Haryana states contribute 85% of the total production. In Rajasthan, the districts where guar production is done are Churu, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Nagaur, Hanumangarh, Jodhpur, Ganganagar, Jaipur, Sirohi, Dausa, Jhunjhunu and Sikar. The districts in Haryana indulged in the production of guar are Bhiwani, Sirsa, Adampur, Mahendragarh and Rewari and the districts in Gujarat are Kutch, Banaskantha,
Mehsana, Sabarkantha and Ahmedabad. Jodhpur city in Rajasthan is one of the major processing centers of guar gum in India.