Bamboos as a cultivated medicinal grass for industries: A systematic review

Bamboos are considered to be non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Habitat of Bamboos are distributed across the world except in extremely cold areas such as the Atlantic and some European regions. Since ancient times, Bamboos have been playing a significant role in preparation of therapeutics, especially in Asian countries like China, Japan, and India. Bamboo possesses high macro and micro nutrients such as protein, fiber, essential minerals and amino acids. Bamboo-derived products have high demand in the market, such as bamboo-salt, bamboo-dietary silica, bamboo-charcoal soap, bamboo-tea, Banslochan, bamboo-vinegar, and many more. These Bamboo products have been used to treat various health problems such as, obesity, inflammation, heart disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, etc. Scope of present review is to compile existing information relevant to Bamboo products, medicinal importance, and its industrial applications. Literature was gathered from peer reviewed journals, websites, books, thesis, and scientific reports from 1995 to 2022. The distribution and characteristics of bamboo species that are used as medicinal plants, their chemical composition, and different methods used for making different bamboo products were reviewed. The distribution pattern of different bamboo genus, including Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Gigantochloa, Phyllostachys, and Sasa were also a part of the present review. Present study comprehensively illustrates the utilization of various bamboos species having medicinal/therapeutic potentials and recommendation to commercialize the bamboo products for future prospectus.