Bamboo shoots can be among cheapest immunity boosters

Bamboo shoots can be among cheapest immunity boosters

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Agricultural Marketing

In news

• Recently, focus of more than 25 experts from 11 countries who converged digitally to mark ‘World Bamboo Day’ was on the nutraceutical bamboo shoot.

Key takeaways

• Bamboo shoots are emerging as high-value and safe edibles.
• They are being grown globally along with all other value-added bamboo products.
• The protein content in fresh bamboo shoots, considered as nutraceutical, can range between 1.49-4.04%. 
• They also contain 17 amino acids, eight of which are essential for the human body.

Important value additions

• According to the National Bamboo Mission, India has the highest area (13.96 million hectares) under bamboo and is the second richest country after China in terms of bamboo diversity with 136 species. 
• The annual production of bamboo in India is 14.6 million tonnes and the bamboo-rattan industry in the country was worth ₹28,005 crore in 2017.
• Bamboo could be among the cheapest immunity boosters for increasing the human body’s resistance to viral attacks.

Do you know?

• The bamboo is considered the grass of life in the northeast India.
• Bamboo has been a key ingredient in new antimicrobial soaps and hand mists developed by Filipino scientists to fight the novel coronavirus.
• The term ‘nutraceutical’ is used to describe medicinally or nutritionally functional foods.
• Bamboo shoots are the edible sprouts of the perennial grass.