Medicine

      The millenarian Oriental medicine has employed bamboo in different ways, among others, in the treatment of ophthalmic illnesses and as anticarcinogenous and antipyretic applications.

      In home remedies, the leaves are cooked to combat colds, and the bark is made into a tea to eliminate parasites. Certain enzymes and silica found in the knots are powdered also. In Java and in Borneo, it has been found that bamboo contains a poison that produces a slow and extremely painful death. (O. Hidalgo. Nuestro bambu “la guadua”, 1983.)

      Bamboo also produces combustion substances such as alcohol, and lubricating oils.

      Paper Making

      There is data of early books made of bamboo slats.

      Written over 2000 years ago, they record the history of the Chinese monarchy.

      Bamboo as well as silk fabrics were later replaced by a lighter and cheaper material. The invention of paper goes back to the year 105 CE in China.

      From the time hence, practically all paper production was based on rather traditional methods and employed wood.

      Much later, in 1925, bamboo was again put forward as raw material for commercial paper production.

      In this case, it was India which took the lead, which it maintains, in the production of bamboo pulp for paper. In Latin America, Brazil is noted for its continuing work in this field.

      It is thought that this country will occupy one of the first places in the production of paper, thanks to the strong encouragement of the cultivation of bamboo.

      Bamboo has not only been compared to wood, it could overtake that material if one takes into account a series of influential factors that produce an economic effect. According to known figures, up to 1 ton of dried pulp can be obtained from 2,5 tons of green bamboo. And this is not taking into account the problem of ecological impact which becomes more worrisome every day. In contrast to wood, bamboo does not require 15 to 30 years for it to be useable.

      In the case of a new plant, this reaches maturity in a maximum term of six years.

      Stalks are cut according to the species, but, the cut stalks produce new shoots within a short time, which in the end, help new growth, thus ensuring continued production without need of reforestation.

      There are also certain types of thin paper such as facial tissues for which bamboo fiber is more appropriate.

      Bamboo pulp can also be mixed with pulp from other species depending on the kind of paper or cardboard desired.

      Studies have been done on the length of bamboo fibre of many species, and it has been determined that a long thin fibre is the most appropriate for the manufacture of paper.

      Many different species are recommended for use in paper manufacture, though there are certain better known species traditionally, such as the Arundinaria alpina, used in Kenya; Bambusa tulda in India, and Guadua angustifolia in the Americas.

      General Characteristics

      Bamboo should not be confused with tree species used for lumber; it is an extraordinary Pooideae (gramineous) whose hardness is a result of some of its constituents. It might be said to be the only tall and hard grass. Structurally, bamboo is composed of alternating segments known as nodes and internodes (Figure 9). These segments change their morphology depending on their location, whether they are part of the root, the stalk or branches.

      Bamboo comes in all colors: green, yellow, white, red, purple and black, as is the case with Phyllostachys nigra.

      The bamboo’s stalks are cylindrical, with somewhat flattened internodes. There have been experiments aimed at molding the stalks: using wooden straighthedges they have produced square and rectangular shapes, which in Japan are used in interior decoration and for building fences.

      Bamboo’s tubular form is quite perfect and could not escape the notice of people who needed to transport water or use structural elements for their dwellings.

      At present, such structures are produced artificially, though not in sufficient quantities to meet the population’s needs.

      Bamboo could be the solution, especially in rural areas.

      The stalks differ also according to the species in terms of height, diameter and growth patterns; the thickness of the wall or the diameter may vary from one species to another, anywhere from a few millimeters to almost 30 cm [approx. 1 foot].

      As to height, this can vary from a few centimeters in the case of Microbambusa macrostachys, to the 40 and 48 meters (130 to l60 feet) reached by Dendrocalamus giganteus in India.

      Due to changes in climate, bad handling and wrong exploitation of bamboo, the dimensions of the species have diminished considerably.

      There is mention of a bamboo known as “ti-chu”, which existed in China some two millennia ago; its size was such that one boat could be made from one of its internodes (Hidalgo, O. Nuestro bambu “la guadua”, 1983).

      Classification

      For the classification of the rhizome, McClure proposed in 1925 the terms monopodial and sympodial for the two major groups of bamboo; in 1966 these terms were changed, by the same author, to leptomorphous (Figure 10) and pachymorphous (Figure 11) according to the morphology of the rhyzome.

      The intermediate group was named amphipodial (Figure 12) by Keng. The pachymorphous type of bamboo is characterized by the cluster formation of the aerial shoots.

      In the leptomorphous type the shoots are isolated or diffused, while in the amphipodial type, which are very few, the shoots present a combined branching of the former two groups.

      Varieties of the bamboo genus Chusquea are not hollow but solid, and are therefore called male bamboo.

      Propagation

      Bamboo, under natural conditions, is propagated by seed. However, because flowering occurs at lengthy intervals, man has resorted to other methods, depending on the group (pachymorphous or leptomorphous) to which the species belongs.

      The propagation of the pachymorphous group may be carried out in one of the following ways: by direct transplant, by rhizome and part of the stalk, by the rhizome alone, or by segments of the stalk. That of the leptomorphous group is carried out by direct transplant, by the stalk with roots and rhizome, by rootstalks and rhizome, and by rhizome with roots. In common with other gramineous plants, such as oats, wheat, barley, and others, bamboo goes through a life cycle that varies, according to its flowering stages, from 33, 60, 95 and up to 105 years.

      There are two types of flowering: the sporadic, which occurs only in some stalks, and the gregarious, present in the same species simultaneously in all the stocks in the world.

      In both cases, stalk and rhizome die following the flowering stage.

      It is worth noting that there have been cases in Costa Rica where the Guadua bamboo did not die after flowering.

      In Costa Rica, as in other countries of the Americas, species have been introduced from different regions of the world; this fact does not seem important until it is noted that flowerings of a single species do not occur all at the same time.

      Factors that might influence flowering include climate, the age of the plant, insects,

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