Bamboo - The Golden Rice

Bamboo is one of the precious plant resources of the earth. The mention of the traditional use of bamboo in Asian medicine dates back to the 6th century. Popular among the common people as ¿Poor man¿s timber¿ since ancient times, because of its innumerable applications has attained the status of ¿Green Gold of forests¿. In China and India, "bamboo blossom" was traditionally seen as a curse or an indication of a starvation coming. It flowers gregariously once in the life time. Bamboos usually have a life-cycle of around 40 to 80 years, varying among species. At infrequent intervals for most species, they will start to blossom. After blossom, flowers produce fruit (called "bamboo rice" in parts of India and China). Following this, the bamboo forest dies out. Since a bamboo forest usually grows from a single bamboo, the death of bamboos occurs in a large area. The book ¿Bamboo- the Golden Rice¿¿ provides the wide and vivid information about bamboo rice from seed coat to molecules.