Bamboo the fastest growing multipurpose woody plant with

Bamboo, the fastest growing, multipurpose woody plant with a myriad of industrial and domestic uses is intricately associated with the cultural, social and economic conditions of people in many Asian countries. Its uses are not only limited to being used as a substitute for wood in construction, furniture, scaffolding, and flooring, but it has been a source of food and medicine in China and South East Asia since ancient times. All parts of the bamboo plant viz. rhizome, culm and AZ 960 mg shaving, shoots, leaves, roots and seeds have clinical applications. Presently, bamboo has gained global attention for its nutritive and therapeutic potential and plays an important role in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industry. Bamboo leaves and shoots have great therapeutic potential and can provide a natural and eco-friendly way of health care in a sustainable manner (Nirmala & Bisht, 2017; Tiwari, 1988). From ancient times, bamboo has been an important ingredient of traditional Asian medicines in general and Chinese and Indian (Ayurveda) medicines in particular (Nirmala, Bisht, & Sheena, 2011). Bamboo medicinal applications were first mentioned in India around 10,000 years ago for preparing Chyawanprash, a health tonic prepared from a number of herbs, including bamboo manna to impart youth, beauty and longevity. Chyawanprash is now famous in the world for its anti-stress and anti-aging properties. Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine recommends bamboo and its products such as Banslochan, Tabasheer and Sitopaladi Churna for treatment of various ailments. This traditional knowledge is now being used for the preparation of modern bamboo-derived pharmaceutical preparations such as bamboo salt, bamboo vinegar, bamboo extracts, bamboo charcoal, bamboo silica and more, for the treatment of various health related problems (Nirmala & Bisht, 2017; Park & Jhon, 2009). Though bamboo is known for its therapeutic properties, it is rarely considered for its antioxidant properties. Several identified antioxidants derived from bamboo shoot and leaves, display certain biological roles, including anti-oxidative (Hu, Zhang, & David, 2000), anti-cancer (Shi & Yang, 1992), anti-hypertensive (Akao et al., 2004), and anti-bacterial (Fujimura, Ideguchi, Minami, Watanabi, & Tadera, 2005) functions. This potential of bamboo has received attention from food, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical sectors. The intent of this paper is to discuss antioxidants and antioxidant properties of bamboo and their potential in the food and pharmaceutical industry.
Antioxidant compounds and antioxidant properties of bamboo leaves Bamboo leaves have been used as a herbal medicine since ancient time for the treatment of fever, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, detoxification, respiratory diseases, chest inflammation, oedema, diarrhea, vomiting, excessive thirst, and also to enhance the flavor and colour of foods (Liu et al., 2016). The important biological and therapeutic properties of bamboo leaf extracts including anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-helmintic, anti-diabetic and anti-ulcer have been confirmed by several in-vitro and in-vivo experiments (Daswad et al., 2017; Tripathi, Jhumka, & Anjum, 2015). Antioxidants of bamboo leaves (AOB) are capable of blocking chain reactions of lipid auto-oxidation, chelating metal ions of transient state, scavenging nitrile compounds and blocking the synthetic reaction of nitrosamine (Lou, Zhang, Wu, Qi, & Zhuo, 2004). The main components in AOB are flavonoids, lactones and phenolic acids. In addition to their medicinal applications, bamboo leaves have been officially certified as natural antioxidants in China, which can be used in edible oils, fish and meat products as a novel food additive (Lu, Wu, Shi, Dong, & Zhang, 2006). It has been reported, that two main groups of polyphenols are responsible for most of the biological activities of bamboo leaves. These are C-glycoside flavonoids, represented by orientin, homoorientin, isoorientin, vitexin, homovitexin, and tricin and phenolic acids such as, p-coumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid (Fig. 1; Table 1) (Jiao, Zhang, Lou, Wu, & Zhang, 2007; Lu et al., 2011; Zhang, Jiao, Liu, Wu, & Zhang, 2008). Several compounds with antioxidative properties have been isolated from the leaves of many bamboo species. Hu et al. (2000) identified phenolic compounds such as chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and luteolin-7-glucoside from the leaf extract of Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis and evaluated their radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. Kweon, Hwang, and Sung (2001) identified and isolated two novel chlorogenic acid derivatives from the leaves of Phyllostachys edulis, and also reported that these two compounds have even stronger antioxidant activity when compared with α-tocopherol. Bamboo leaf flavonoids (BLFs) can significantly decrease the serum triglyceride level, increase high density lipoprotein content, regulate blood lipids and reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, and have also displayed strong anti-oxidative, anti-aging, and anti-fatigue activities. Park, Lim, Kim, Choi, and Lee (2007) isolated two antioxidative flavonoid C-glycoside derivatives, isoorientin and isoorientin 2′O-α-i-rhamnoside from n-BuOH extract of leaves of Sasa borealis, which is a major source of bamboo leaves for use in traditional medicine in Korea and reported that, these two compounds possess antioxidative and cytoprotective effects against oxidative damage. The young leaves are also marketed as bamboo tea. The oils obtained from the leaves of three cultivars of Phyllostachys heterocycla (cv. pubescens, gracilis, hetrocycla), showed significant antioxidant and antimicrobial activities (Jin, Yuan, & Zhang, 2011). The methanol extract of culm and leaves of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) and madake bamboo (P. bambusoides), were evaluated for their antioxidative effects by DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging activity assay, the inhibition activity for peroxidation of linoleic acid, and the reduction power. It was found that methanol extract of moso bamboo culms and madake bamboo leaves presented stronger antioxidative activity compared with DPPH scavenging activity (Jun, Tohru, & Ujianzhang, 2004). Ni et al. (2014) studied the effect of different harvesting seasons and drying methods on the antioxidative activity from the leaves of two bamboo species namely, Pleioblastus kongosanensis f. aureostriatus and Shibataea chinensis, and concluded that the leaves show highest antioxidative activity in winter and lyophilization is the most effective method for maintaining the activity of antioxidant compounds.