What are Bamboo Plants Customarily Known for?

For Asians, Bamboo is a well-known plant, mostly in humid countries. Bamboo has a lot of functions to accomplish humans’ existence. Since a while ago, bamboo stems are mostly famous for handicrafts, building a structure, weaponry, and more. Since it is widely known as a multifunctional plant, many ancient men also discovered that bamboo has remarkable benefits for some diseases. They even ate young bamboo, which has white color as their cooking delicacies. Young bamboo has been consumed even until now. Bamboo plants have a remarkable role in traditional therapy among Asians. The countries like China, South Korea, and even Japan have been benefiting from our dear bamboo since ancient times.

Bamboo Plant

Bamboo stems have been in use in Asian culture for a variety of purposes for ages. Bamboo (subfamily Bambusoideae) also belongs to the grass family. It is also a member of the tall treelike grasses of the family ‘Poaceae.’

The plant grows in humid and mildly temperate regions. Many of the species are seen in Southeast and East Asia. The jointed culms can vary in height from a few meters to almost 40 meters.

Bamboo grows very rapidly, with some varieties growing about 30 cm (1 foot) daily!

This plant is an evergreen perennial plant belonging to the Bambusoideae subfamily and grass family. It has a giant, straight, and solid structure that ranks bamboo high among the most benefiting plants on earth.

Nutrient Content of Bamboo Leaves

Bamboo leaves are high in antioxidants, fiber, and other nutrients which are beneficial to health; no wonder panda could survive by only eating bamboo leaves and shoots. The main components that play a mighty role in the health advantages of bamboo leaves are dietary fiber and silica. Silicon is a mineral that has a lot of health benefits like hair, bone, and nail growth/maintenance. Even the amount of silica in bamboo is ten times advanced than in horsetail leaves. Another potential element of bamboo leaves is the dietary fiber that aids normal digestive processes. A glass of bamboo leaves has about 1g of dietary fiber or 4 percent fiber in 1g of leaves. Some research studies also reported that bamboo leaves have a high amount of polyphenols that act as an antioxidant in our bodies.

The Amazing Benefits of Bamboo

Among the long list of bamboo’s benefits, there are wonderful useful benefits for our health. Biomedical research revealed that bamboo can fight toxicity. It is also a fact that bamboo is well known as an effective herb to protect against mental problems and stress.

While swelling, lipotoxicity, and cancer can be prevented by this long tree, another part of it is about the usefulness of its leaves for human health. It is endowed with enormous health functions. Since ancient memories, bamboo leaves have been found to contain a significant amount of the total biomass of its plant.

1.     Bamboo Active Compounds

The exact active compound seen in bamboo is a mineral called silica or silicon dioxide. This free occurring mineral is abundant in the Earth’s crust.

Trace amounts of the nutrient are found in our (human) bone and connective tissue, and it helps to shield these structures.

It happens that this bamboo is among the few plants with stinging nettle and horsetail herb that are rich in silica. However, it has about 10 times more silica when compared to either horsetail herb or stinging nettle.

2.     Bamboo Tea

Preparing bamboo tea from bamboo leaves is one of the most known uses of bamboo leaves. The bamboo leaves are chopped and processed to produce bamboo teabags. It’s a wholesome drink, and you can enjoy a cup of it daily. It will aid digestion and lessen any digestive problems that you might be having.

Bamboo tea is very rich in silica that can help reduce bloating and stop diarrhea. And for people with a severe case of flatulence, bamboo tea is a great drink for them.

Some also prepare bamboo tea at home by boiling and bamboo tea leaves. If you are to make this, ensure that the bamboo leaves are very fresh, and you should not eat the leaf itself.

3. Maintain a Healthy Skin Glow

Bamboo leaves are yet another great skincare product that can maintain healthy skin alongside keeping it glowing and acne-free. Bamboo leaves have antibacterial features that can prevent and scout for bacteria that cause acne. It also put off skin irritation from many harmful chemical ingredients in cosmetics. To enjoy the health benefits of bamboo leaves as a part of your routine skin care, you can mash some bamboo foliar until it turns a thick paste, mix the paste with some honey or olive oil, then apply the mixture on your skin and let is stay for up to 15 minutes. Rinse off the mixture with rather warm water and enjoy your new look. Repeat the treatment two times a week to reap the maximum benefit of bamboo leaves.

4. Eradicate Lung and Stomach-Heat (Digestive System)

Health Benefits of these bamboo Leaves for the gut is very powerful. For folks suffering from diseases on either their lungs, or chest, or even heart, straightly channel your mind to bamboo leaves! Bamboo leaves can easily clear the heat inside your body, especially the lungs, gut, and also heart, while it is promoting urea expulsion from the bladder. So the next time you feel some abdominal pain, flee to the bamboo tree beside your house and help yourself.

5.     Expulsion of The Placenta

These leaves can also be used to sanitize the womb after child delivery. First, boil some leaves in water for up to 10 minutes. Sieve out the solution to add honey to taste. Drink it while it’s hot to boost placental separation. After 180 minutes, the placenta will be expelled out with no stress. The extract can also be gulped to lower pain during parturition (child delivery) for regulating the menstrual cycle. Research studies have proved that bamboo tea is beneficial to ladies who receive intense periods. Taking bamboo tea once daily will help you get rid of those menstrual issues.

6. Impact on Male Fertility

A study paid attention to the benefits of bamboo and revealed that the shoots and leaves of bamboo are very effective to stimulate fertility among males. This ethanolic extract of bamboo leaves could change the function and integrity, and it shows that the leaves and shoots are very vital for male fertility.

7. Promote Nail and Hair Growth

Not just keeping your glowing skin, but these bamboo leaves can also aid nail and hair growth since it is high in silica. The silica itself is another mineral that forms the major component of human nails and hair. To keep a healthy nail, you need to drink bamboo leaves tea; or whenever you wish to enhance your hair growth, you can also make some hair masks from these leaves. Apart from the fact that the silica content of bamboo leaves, it is also high in Vitamin E that makes them a wonderful ingredient in boosting hair and nail growth, especially if you have any problem with daily hair loss or brittle nails.

8. Thyroid Function

Eating bamboo leaves and also shoots are very beneficial to boost the functions of thyroid hormones (e.g., triiodothyronine and thyroxine). It can control the cortical cerebral neuronal voyage during fetal brain development.

9. Bamboo Leaf Beer/ Wine

One of the most fascinating uses of bamboo leaves is its use in winemaking. It entails collecting the natural dewdrops on bamboo leaves early in the morning. This will be supplemented with the fermented bamboo dust to prepare the wine. It is a strenuous process, which is why real bamboo wine does not come cheap at all.

The bamboo wine has both tonic and mellow characteristics, which suits laidback gatherings and events.

Another good drink made from the plant is bamboo beer. It is healthy booze with antiviral and antibacterial properties. It is usually a merge of shoots, various grains, and bamboo leaves. All of these will be fermented altogether. The extracts will later be processed into beer.

10. Prevent Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is a serious mental illness that usually occurs in older folks, and it occurs due to damages to the brain cell. A research study reported that the silica contained in the leaves could prevent aluminum absorption and eradicate it from the body. Aluminum itself is well known as one of the major factors that can harm brain cells and promote Alzheimer’s. Yet, the antioxidant strength of bamboo leaves has also played a significant role in protecting brain cells from oxidative damages of free radicals, though many studies still need to be done to ascertain the health benefits of our dear bamboo leaves.