Guar gum (E412) is a galactomannan. It is produced from the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. Guar gum is a free-flowing, off-white powder, and used as a thickening agent in many different food applications because of the low cost-in-use.
Guar gum is more soluble than locust bean gum and is a better stabilizer, as it has more galactose branch points. It is not self-gelling, and it is not affected by ionic strength or pH, but will degrade at pH extremes at temperature (e.g. pH 3 at 50 °C). It remains stable in solution over pH range 5-7.
Guar gum shows high low-shear viscosity but is strongly shear-thinning. It is very thixotropic above 1% concentration, but below 0.3%, the thixotropy is only slight. It has much greater low-shear viscosity than that of other hydrocolloids. Guar gum has a synergystic effect with xanthan gum with regards to viscosity, and can therefore create very cost-effective high viscosity solutions in combination with xanthan gum.
Acatris has several grades of guar gum available, please contact our sales department to find out which grade is most suitable for your application.