Guar gum side effects, guar gum health benefits, powder, fiber,
allergy, uses, slime.. zhion@zhion.com August 5, 2011     
GUAR GUM [also known as guar, guar flour, and jaguar gum]

Guar gum can be considered as the ground endosperms of the guar plant. The plant can be
found in Aisa Minor and in Southwest United States.

Guar gum is a guar seed extract, containing about 80% of galactomannan, 10% moisture,
10% protein and trace amounts of heavy metals and ash. The amount of these impurities
depends on the species, sources and purification process.

Guar Gum Uses
The galactomannan of guar gum consists of a long linear mannan backbone and side chains
of a single galactose unit. This feature allows guar gum to be soluble and gelling in water.  
Guar gum hydrates and swells rapidly in aqueous media to form viscous dispersions or gels.
Consequently, consumption of guar gum may retard chemicals like cholesterol and
triglycerides travel to the intestine wall for absorption. In fact, guar gum is observed to prevent
cholesterol absorption and it lowers serum LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increases
glucose tolerance. [1]

Guar Gum Uses in Food Industry
Because guar gum forms a high viscous solution, guar gum is used as a thickening agent for
various products such as beverages, soups, cottage cheese and some frozen desserts. [1]
Guar gum is processed into different grades, with respect to viscosity grades and mesh
sizes.

Guar Gum Uses in Drug Industry
30 years ago, guar gum, in the form of powders, was mainly used as a disintegrant and
binder in tablet. Today, guar gum powder is used as a controlled-release agent for drug.
Guar gum powder, drug and other ingredients are mixed and compressed into tablets.
During dissolution studies, guar gum hydrates and forms a thick gel layer on the tablet
surface. Consequently, drug releases out from the guar gum tablet in a sustained manner,
achieving the desired kinetics effect.

It also has been observed that bacterial flora in the large intestine degrade guar gum rapidly.
Consequently, scientists developed successful delivery systems using guar gum to target
drugs to ileum and large intestine. [12]

Guar Gum Health Benefits - Guar Gum Slime?
Some manufacturers promote guar gum as a agent  for weight managment (or weight loss).
Theoretically, guar gum decreases appetite by providing a "feeling of fullness.

If guar gum can reduce chemical absorption.  Guar gum probably can also reduce glucose
absorption. Thus, it may cause glucose fluctuations. People with diabetes should take guar
gum preparations under doctor's instruction. [2] During the fermentation of guar gum in the
large intestine, carbon dioxide, fatty acid and hydrogen are produced and they will also lower
the pH of the medium.

Guar Gum Side Effects
Guar gum can swell as much as 20 fold. Thus, if an user takes an excessive amount of guar
gum powder, guar gum powder may cause obstruction at the esophagus. Thus, users should
not exceed the recommended dose of guar gum supplements.

Prolonged ingestion of guar gum increased the odd for colorectal cancer in the studies of
rats. [3-8]. This side effect is serious. One group explained that the soluble fiber did not raise
distal butyrate concentration high enough to protect the colon from cancer, as butyrate
demonstrated to slow the growth of cancer cells cultured in vitro. [5] However, two other
studies suggested that guar gum was non-carcinogenic. [10,11] More interesting,
researchers found dietary fiber supplementation with 10% pectin or with 10% guar gum (fed
during the promotional stage of carcinogenesis) suppressed colon cancer incidence in study
of rats. [9] So it is unclear if guar gum promotes cancers or suppresses cancers??

REFERENCES

[1] GuarNT Product Information, Tic Gums web-site, April 13, 2005. [2] Weight Loss: Over-the-Counter and Herbal Remedies for Weight
Loss, WebMD, April 18, 2005[3] Okazaki H et al, Increased incidence rate of colorectal tumors due to the intake of a soluble dietary
fiber in rat chemical carcinogenesis can be suppressed by substituting partially an insoluble dietary fiber for the soluble one., Int J
Cancer. 2002 Aug 1;100(4):388-94.[4] Sengupta S, Dietary fiber and colorectal neoplasia, Dis Colon Rectum. 2001
Jul;44(7):1016-33.[5] McIntyre A et al, Butyrate production from dietary fibre and protection against large bowel cancer in a rat model,
Gut. 1993 Mar;34 (3):386-91.[6] Jacobs LR, Effect of dietary fiber on colonic cell proliferation and its relationship to colon
carcinogenesis, Prev Med. 1987 Jul;16(4):566-71.[7] Jacobs LR, Relationship between dietary fiber and cancer: metabolic, physiologic,
and cellular mechanisms, Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1986 Dec;183(3):299-310.[8] Jacobs LR, Lupton JR, Relationship between colonic
luminal pH, cell proliferation, and colon carcinogenesis in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine treated rats fed high fiber diets, Cancer Res. 1986
Apr;46(4 Pt 1):1727-34[9] Heitman DW et al, Dietary supplementation with pectin and guar gum on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced
colon carcinogenesis in rats, Carcinogenesis. 1992 May;13(5):815-8.[10] Melnick RL et al, Chronic effects of agar, guar gum, gum
arabic, locust-bean gum, or tara gum in F344 rats and B6C3F1 mice, Food Chem Toxicol. 1983 Jun;21(3):305-11.[11] Bauer HG et al,
Effect of two kinds of pectin and guar gum on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine initiation of colon tumors and on fecal beta-glucuronidase activity
in the rat, Cancer Res. 1981 Jun;41(6):2518-23.[12] Friend DR and Wong D, Colonic delivery of dexamethasone: a
pharmacoscintigraphic evaluation, Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 1997 Feb;11(1):205-13


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