Bamboo: Inherent source of nutrition and medicine

Abstract

Bamboo is a perennial plant found all over the world except alkaline soils, desert, and marsh. Bamboo shoots are considered as one of the useful health foods because of their rich contents of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, fibers, and minerals and very low fat. Though bamboo shoots provide lots of health benefits, their consumption is confined mostly to Southeast Asian and East Asian countries. In recent years, evidences show immense therapeutic potential of Bamboo plant, which has been used in various traditional systems of medicine like ayurveda. The leaves of Bamboo are used as a folk medicine for the treatment of cough, fever and leprosy. Recent scientific evidences indicate that the extract of Bamboo possess antioxidant and free radical scavenging property, antimicrobial, anti-aging and cardio-protective property. This review discussed about different nutritional constituents and therapeutic potential