| Abstrakt: |
Guar gum is a kind of natural galactomannan extracted from the endosperm of seeds of guar beans. It has excellent water solubility thickening, gelling, and film-forming properties, as well as non-toxicity, good biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Moreover, its physical and chemical properties can be significantly improved and its application performance can be efficiently enhanced through molecular modification, chemical cross-linking, graft copolymerization, oxidation, and other modification treatments by reacting with the hydroxyl groups and glycosidic bonds in its molecular structure. Therefore, guar gum and its modified products have been found wide applications in industrial fields such as daily chemicals, papermaking, food processing, oil exploitation, biomedicine and water treatment. In this review, the name, source, chemical structure, main physicochemical properties and functions of guar gum along with its extraction technologies and modification methods were briefly presented. The applications of guar gum and its modified products, and the current challenges as well as the future research directions of these materials were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
