Scientific Investigation of Traditional Water Leaching Method for Bamboo Preservation.

In many countries bamboo has played an important role in the livelihood of rural people. Since bamboo species are quite susceptible to insect and fungi attack, traditionally rural people were using simple and cost effective preservation methods. Toxic effects of chromium and arsenic, released from various commercially available preservatives, necessitated the development of environmental friendly treatment techniques for preservation of bamboo species. Indigenous water leaching process is used traditionally to preserve bamboo. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of water leaching method. Physico-chemical characteristics, microstructure properties and decay resistance properties of water leached bamboo specimens were compared with control. The results revealed that the process may make bamboo unattractive to fungi even not being toxic. D. strictus bamboo species was chosen for the present study. Decay resistance of water leached samples was found to be better than untreated and comparable to chemically treated bamboo species. Decay resistance analysis of water leached D. strictus cuhns indicates the high fungal resistance of treated samples. Water leaching alone cannot be considered as long term preservation option for outdoor application of bamboo species. However its integration with other technologies can provide viable resistance to bamboo species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]