Cassia gum is manufactured from the endosperm of cassia obtusifolia or Cassia Tora and has several uses in industry. It is used as a food additive and beverage as well as in the manufacturing industry. It is used as a gelling agent, stabilizer as well as a thickener.
Chemical Composition of Cassia Gum
It is pale yellow in color with a noticeable smell. It easily dissolves in hot drinks but at low temperatures, it turns into viscous liquid. This makes it useful in industries as a gelling agent. The cassia gum powder is highly preferred because it easily combines with most hydrocolloids such as carrageen as well as xanthan gum to create a stable gel.
Food and Beverage Market
In regard to the food and beverage market usage, the cassia gum market has been grouped into animal food, dairy, confectionaries products, meat products and instant mixes. The animal food segment, dog food sub section, it is anticipated that it will account for a major share of the demand by the year 2025 on a basis of value.
On the instant mixes sub segment, it is expected to have the highest continuous average growth rate of up to 7.1% by value between the years 2015-2025.
Manufacturing Segment
In the manufacturing industry, the cassia gum market is further subdivided into the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, paper, textile, chemical processing and others. The demand for the cassia gum in the cosmetics sub segment is also expected to advance rapidly in the years to come, with a 48% increase expected on the basis of value by the year 2025.
Hair Care Formulations
In the area of natural hair care formulations, the cassia gum powder is important in improvement of hair conditioning, which has also contributed to the increased demand from the cosmetic segment. The cassia hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride polymers are naturally derived from the cassia Tora seeds, and this compound is useful in conditioning shampoo formulations. It creates very unique sensory experience, better deposition and better performance on the conditioners.
The pharmaceutical products sub segment is expected to have an average annual growth in demand of 6.3 % per annum for the period up to 2025.
On a regional basis, the market can be segmented into several regions such as the North America; which is expected to dominate the market share by approximately 30%, by the year 2017; the Asia pacific region, Africa and western Europe. Demand in Western Europe is expected to remain at 34.8 % of the total market by value.
Market Expectations
The Global cassia gum market has advanced at a reasonable rate over the years. The cassia gum regulations approval has also spread many regions of the world thus adding to the global demand.
It is also evident that most companies are increasingly using cassia in most of their new products like baby foods, and dairy products as well as confectionary foods like jellies and biscuits. The major reasons why cassia gum powder is preferred is that it’s affordable, available and effective. Many countries such as the European, China as well as Japan have also approved the use of cassia gum powder.
Cassia Tora Powder Demand Due To Medicinal Value
Cassia Tora powder is mainly used for medicinal proposes since the ancient times. It mainly contains laxative cardiotomic and other chemical components such as chrysophanol, the emodin as well as chy-obtusin which make it more preferred for ayurvedic systems.
Researchers claims that cassia Tora have medicinal property in the leaves and seeds. The powder treats skins ailments such as ringworms and colic.
Due to this high medicinal value of the cassia Tora the powder have been considered for further research by the scientists. This will translate to increasing global demand for the production of cassia tora plant in the next 5 years.