Eco-Friendly Preservation of Bamboo Species: Traditional to Modern Techniques

Abstract

The continuous depletion of forests calls for the astute usage of existing resources. Fungi and termites cause serious damage to biomass under storage and service conditions. Various protective treatments with high amounts of toxic chemicals are used by the wood and bamboo industry. Efforts are being made the world over to develop environmentally friendly preservatives for wood and bamboo species. Recent research highlights the potential and effectiveness of traditional practices and procedures, mainly water leaching technique and smoke treatment. Under laboratory conditions, the service life of treated blocks were found to be at a par with commercial chemical preservative treated blocks. Various plant extracts and oil-based formulations, such as organic acids, essential oils, and ecofriendly chemical-based preservatives, are in the stage of development. The bio-efficacy of such preservatives is measured in terms of the improvement in resistance to fungi and termites. However, much work still needs to be done to completely determine the efficacy of many of these newly developed preservatives and techniques. The present paper discusses an overview of the developments in the field of environmentfriendly biomass preservatives.