Study ‘reveals bamboo keys’

Andrew Mathieson
GEELONG research has unlocked the secret to bamboo’s sunscreen qualities, according to Deakin University.
Deakin said PhD candidate Tarannum Afrin would soon publish a study identifying a component of the plant than helped it block harmful UV radiation.
Ms Afran was also working on a method for environmentally friendly processing bamboo fibre for clothing material, Deakin said.
Ms Afran, who studies in Deakin’s Institutte for Technology Research and Innovation at Waurn Ponds, said bamboo was an “emerging fibre” for textile and medical industries.
“Manufacturers have long claimed that bamboo products have a range of properties including excellent appearance and feel, natural antibacterial, UV-shielding and moisture-controlling characteristics but none of these claims have been proven scientifically,” she said.
Her research could be key to producing clothing material with inherent sun-block qualities.
However, Ms Afran said a chemical-reliant method of processing bamboo “wasn’t friendly to the environment”.
“The process were are developing allows us to process the plant into a fibre in an environmentally friendly way while retaining the UV qualities (as well as) the wicking and anti-bacterial properties.”
Ms Afran believed bamboo was a “promising alternative” to other fibres including cotton and silk, which were “labour and resource intensive”.
“Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world,” she said.
“It can grow up to one metre overnight and as a result spreads rapidly across large areas. The yield from an acre of bamboo is 10 times greater than that from cotton.”
Ms Afran said pesticides, chemical weeding, insecticides and fungicides were also unnecessary to grow bamboo.
“Unlike cotton” it also needed no irrigation, she said.