BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Introduction
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Collection of seeds after gregarious flowering
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Separation of seeds by winnowing
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One year old seedling suitable for multiplication
season and part of the culm. The nodes contain less water soluble extractives, pentosans
and lignin but more cellulose than internodes. Silica content is high in the epidermis, with
very little in the nodes and is absent in the internodes. Cellulose in bamboo is holocellulose
and consists of 1, 4 bonded hydroglucose units and the degree of polymerization is
higher than that of dicotyledonous woods. The bamboo hemicellulose consists of
4-O-methyl D-glucuronic acid, L-arabinose and D-xylose. Bamboo lignin, which is typical
of the grasses, is built up from three phenyl-propane units, p-coumaryl, coniferyl and
sinapyl alcohols interconnected through biosynthetic pathways (Liese, 1987).
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The chemical composition of 18 species belonging to 10 genera is known from India (Singh
et al., 1976; Singh and Bhola, 1978). Hemicellulose studied for three species showed a
difference in the yield of sugars (Rita Dhawan and Singh, 1982). The difference in lignin
content of various species is negligible. A few reports are available on nutritive value of
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