Plant Name Cyamopsis tetragonoloba
Common name: Guar
Marathi: bavachi,gavar,gavari
Hindi: gawar,guwar
English: Guar, Cyamopsis
Jawhar: gawar
Interesting facts and history
Guar has been cultivated in India for ages for use of its tender pods as fresh vegetables and other parts of the plant to be used as cattle feed. A severe locust bean gum shortage, just after the second world war, adversely affected the paper and textile industries. Guar Gum was found to be the most suitable substitute for scarce locust bean gum. The technology of Guar Gum extraction was commercialized in 1953 in the USA and after a decade in India.
Guar gum has been used for centuries as a thickening agent for foods and pharmaceuticals. It continues to find extensive use for these applications as well as the paper, textile, and oil drilling industries."
Identification guide
General
Guar is an upright, coarse-growing summer annual legume known for its drought resistance.
Stems
Plants have single stems, fine branching or basal branching (depending on the variety) and grow to be 18 to 40 in. tall. Racemes are distributed on the main stem and lateral branches.
Leaves
trifoliate leaves up to 10 cm long
seeds
Seeds vary from dull-white to pink to light gray or black and range from 900 to 1,600 seeds/oz.
Pods
Pods are generally 1 1/2 to 4 in. long and contain 5 to 12 seeds each.
Habit / Habitat
The Guar or cluster bean, with the botanical name Cyamopsis tetragonoloba, is an annual legume and the source of guar gum. It is also known as Gavar, Guwar, or Guvar bean. ... It is assumed to have developed from the African species Cyamopsis senegalensis.
Occurrence
It is grown principally in north-western India and Pakistan with smaller crops grown in the semiarid areas of the high plains of Texas in the US, Australia and Africa. The most important growing area centers on Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India where demand for guar for fractionation produced an agricultural boom as in 2012. Currently, India and Pakistan are the main producers of cluster bean, accounting for 80% production of the world's total, while Thar, Punjab Dry Areas in Pakistan and Rajasthan, Gujarat, Kutch region occupies the largest area (82.1%) under guar cultivation in India. In addition to its cultivation in India and Pakistan, the crop is also grown as a cash crop in other parts of the world. Several commercial growers have converted their crops to guar production to support the increasing demand for guar and other organic crops in the United States.
Edible parts
World wide use: Guar leaves can be used like spinach and the pods are prepared like salad or vegetables. Its beans are very nutritious but the guar protein is not usable by humans unless toasted to destroy the trypsin inhibitor.
Leaves are used boiled or stir-fried; green pods used boiled, stir-fried, or dried for storage; dry seeds processed for gum as thickener.
Used by tribal community in Jawhar: Fruits
Methodof consumption
Jawhar tribal: Fruits boiled and cooked as vegetable
Other Recipe
Guar ( Guar Gum or cyamopsis tetragonoloba ) curry:
To increase the consumption of Guar seed industry will have to come with new idea. I am working on this idea that how to increase the consumption of Guar. Traditionally Guar was used a regular food item for Human and Cattle. in interior area of Rajasthan it is still used in many traditional food item
Guar is used as making fried namkeen daal just like Moong Daal.
Whole Guar is used in making Mixture Namkeen by frying in cooking oil and sprinkling the spices on it. There is huge consumption of guar in Bikaner Namkeen Industry.
Guar dehydrate green bean are used as snakes after frying it.
Guar is also used as making Guar daal curry
Guar whole Daal curry.
Guar green beans are used as making green vegetable curry.
Boiled guar seed is given to milking cattle
Some people also use guar as fortifying the flour,.It increase the protein content in flour.
Traditional Guar Curry:
Guar curry is very simple. Sock the guar seeds in water for whole night.( 12 hour). The size of seed will increase three time. Now wash and drain the water. Take oil in fry pan, heat it for spicies fry. put some asfatida ( HING) then cumin seeds. mix one spoon garlic paste, fry it then after fry onion and green chilies as per taste. Now add the shocked over night guar fry it. Now add regular kitchen spicies Red Chilie, Coriander powder, Turmeric powder and small peaces of tomato. Now cook it in open pan or in pressure cooker. After half an hour check it if it is cooked or not. If yes then sarve it Rice or Roti ( Chapati) or Naan. You can add some curd (Dahi) ( 1-2 spoon) in Guar Curry after cooking.
It is good in digestion. It is rich in protein . It is also good for intestine as it is very rich in fiber. It will also stop fat decomposition on body. It is laxative in nature so it good for digestive system.
Medicinal use
The seeds are dried, ground into a powder then mixed with water to form a viscous substance known as guar gum. This comprises about 86% water-soluble mucilage consisting of mainly galactomannin. Guar gum is gently laxative, helps to lower blood cholesterol levels and acts as a digestive tonic.
The gum is taken internally as an effective but very gentle bulk laxative. It also delays the emptying of the stomach and thereby slows the absorption of carbohydrates, thus helping to stabilize blood sugar levels. This can be of great importance to people with blood sugar level problems, such as diabetics and pre-diabetics.
Traditionally, the leaves are eaten to cure night blindness
Nutritional and medicinal information
Guar Gum used in weight loss, because bulk-forming fibers may impart a “feeling of fullness,” they have been used to help curb appetite.
Guar gum has been reported to have varied effects on blood pressure.
Guar gum may cause GI obstruction. Use guar gum cautiously in diabetic patients. Flatulence and other symptoms of GI distress are common during initial use.
Harvesting and preserving
The Guar crop is sown after the first rains in July and harvested in late October. The guar bean requires full sunshine, moderately frequent rain, and well-drained soil for good crop. Too much rain affects the size and yield of seeds. Guar is extremely drought-tolerant and thrives in semiarid regions.
Two main varieties of Guar Seeds Pusa Naubahar and Pusa Sadabahar are used for cultivation. Pusa Sadabahar is a single stem variety which is suitable for rainy as well as summer season. Pusa Mausami is a branched variety which is good for rainy season only.
Guar seeds are planted at the rate of 30 kilograms/hectare (9–11 lb /acre at a spacing of 45-60 x 20–30 cm (18–24 x 8–12 in) in February–March and June–July. During rainy season, the seeds are sown 2–3 cm deep on ridges and in furrows during summer months.
FYM is applied at the rate of 25 tonnes /ha (11.1 tons . N, P2O5 and K2O recommendation for the crop is 20:60:80 kg/ha (18:53:71 lb/acre). Average yield is 5 to 6 tonnes/ha (2.2–2.6 tons/acre). Meager information is available for genetic variability in clusterbean addressing the qualitative traits
After harvesting, when the pods become dry through sunlight, they are beaten off and during this process, the seeds come out of the pods.
Propagation and Storage
Seed - sow 2 - 3cm deep in situ. The seed has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing.
Inoculating the seed with Rhizobium bacterium may be necessary in order for the plant to establish and perform well.
Other uses
Forage: Guar plants can be used as cattle feed, but due to hydrocyanic acid in its beans, only mature beans can be used.
Green manure: Guar plantings increase the yield of subsequent crops as this legume conserves soil nutrient content.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Spermatophyta
Sub-division: Angiospermae
Class: Diocotyledonae
Sub-Class: Polypetalae
Series: Calyciflorae
Order: Rosales
Family: Leguminosae
Sub-family: Papilionaceae
Genus: Cyamopsis
Species: tetragonoloba
References
https://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Guar.html
http://www.gits4u.com/agri/guar.htm#History
https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/guar.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guar
http://zipcodezoo.com/index.php/Cyamopsis_tetragonoloba
https://avrdc.org/white-mugwort-artemisia-lactiflora/
http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Cyamopsis+tetragonoloba