Guar it lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. In fact, agriculturists in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan follow crop-rotation and use guar as a source to replenish the soil with essential fertilizers and nitrogen fixation, before the next crop. Guar as a plant has a multitude of different functions for human and animal nutrition but its gelling-agent-containing seeds (guar gum) are today the most important use. Demand is rising rapidly due to industrial use of guar gum in hydraulic fracturing (oil shale gas). About 80% of world production occurs in India and Pakistan, but due to strong demand, the plant is being
Guar gum gum shows a clear low shear plateau on the flow curve and is strongly shear thinning. The rheology of guar gum is typical for a random coil polymer. It does not show the very high low shear plateau viscosities seen with more rigid polymer chains such as xanthan gum. It is very thixotropic above 1% concentration, but below 0.3%, the thixotropy is slight. Guar gum shows viscosity synergy with xanthan gum. Guar gum and micellar casein mixtures can be slightly thixotropic if a biphase system forms. One use of guar gum is as a thickening agent in foods and medicines