A comparative study on four and six years old Oxytenanthera monostigama with reference to the physical and anatomical characteristics were studied. Physical properties such as the culms, height, number of internodes per culms, internodes length, internodes diameter, culms wall thickness, moisture content and basic density are considered to be important factors in determining the suitability of bamboo for various applications. Anatomical analysis of the fibres included the investigation of the fibre’s length, width and length/width ratio and specific gravity they were higher in six years old culms than in the four years old culms. Similarly in physical aspects, basic density was found to be higher in six years old culms

Maya, C.

Narasimhamurthy, .

Pandey, C.N.

ePrints@Bangalore University

 INT J CURR SCI 2013, 5: 62-66 RESEARCH ARTICLE                                                           ISSN 2250-1770 A study on anatomical and physical properties of cultivated bamboo (Oxytenanthera monostigama) Maya Ca, Narasimhamurthyb*, CN Pandeyb aDepartment of Botany, Bangalore University, Bangalore-560 037, India bDepartment of Biology, Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute (IPIRTI), Bangalore-560 037, India *Corresponding author: E-mail: murthy_simha59@rediffmail.com Abstract A comparative study on four and six years old Oxytenanthera monostigama with reference to the physical and anatomical characteristics were studied. Physical properties such as the culms, height, number of internodes per culms, internodes length, internodes diameter, culms wall thickness, moisture content and basic density are considered to be important factors in determining the suitability of bamboo for various applications. Anatomical analysis of the fibres included the investigation of the fibre’s length, width and length/width ratio and specific gravity they were higher in six years old culms than in the four years old culms. Similarly in physical aspects, basic density was found to be higher in six years old culms. Keywords: bamboo culms, anatomical and physical properties, cultivated bamboo Received: 12th August; Revised: 16thOctober; Accepted: 20th November; © IJCS New Liberty Group 2013 Introduction Bamboo being one of the fastest growing plants on earth is the best alternative to future wood as a result; bamboo has been the focus of research in recent years.  However study on cultivated bamboo strands has so far mostly confined to silviculture and fertilizers are applied to enhance growth. Information on properties such as morphology, physical, mechanical, chemical etc. at different ages is very limited.  Studies on the morphological and anatomical characteristics of managed natural bamboo strands Gigantochloa scortechinii were conducted. Currently, bamboos are used for making traditional products such as handicraft, basketry and high value added products of panel parquets, furniture and construction materials. The physical characteristics and properties such as the culms, height, number of internodes, per culms internodes length, internodes diameter, culms, wall thickness girth, moisture content and basic density are considered to be important factors in determining the suitability of bamboo for various application and chemical treatment.  Culms of different age group were studied in order to determine at what age influence for the bamboo treatability.  Basic density is important, since it reflects the amount of cell wall material per unit volume of culms and relates density to strength properties.  This study highlights on the physical characteristics and anatomical properties on cultivated Oxytenanthera monostigama. Materials and Methods The bamboo samples collected from bamboo Arboretum of BIAF, S. Lakkahalli near Tiptur taluk of Tumkur district were harvested and utilized for the study. The culms were randomly selected and have diameters ranging from 8 to 10 cm.  The culms were cut at about 30 cm above the ground level cutting of the culms below that level will affect the growing rate of the other culms in the Maya et al., 2013 bamboo clump. Each culm was cut to a length of 12 m leaving out the top parts with branches.  The culms were later subdivided into 3 equal lengths of bottom, middle and top portions of 4m each.  Paraffin wax was applied to the cut surfaces of each portion to reduce sap evaporation.  Sample blocks for anatomical study were fixed in formalin-acetic acid (90% ethanol of 70% conc. 4% glacial acetic acid and 6% formaldehyde of 37-48% conc.) immediately after felling and kept in closed bottles. Anatomical properties The anatomical studies on vascular bundles, vessel sizes, fibers were carried out according to the method as described by Jane (1933). Sample blocks for anatomical study were fixed in formalin-acetic acid (90% ethanol of 70% conc., 4% glacial acetic acid, 6% formaldehyde 37-48% conc.) immediately after felling and kept in closed bottles. Observations for anatomical structure were made using an Olympus compound microscope with image analysis software system. The distribution of vascular bundles was determined by counting the vascular bundles on a cross section per mm2. Bamboo samples blocks were cut into sections of 10 mm x 10 mm x culm wall thickness, boiled with distill water for four hrs and sliced into 25 µm thick transverse section by sledge microtome. For fiber length sample blocks of 20mmx10mmxculms wall thickness were chipped radially into match stick size splints with sharp knife. The splints were then kept in marked vial. Jeffrey’s solution (50:50 mixtures of 15% nitric acid and 10% chromic acid) were used to macerate the fibres. A period of 48 hrs was allowed to soften the splints (Abd Latif and Mohd Tamizi, 1992; Razak et al., 2007). At the end of the maceration period, the softened splints were careful washed with distilled water. Physical characteristics and their properties Measurements for some basic physical characteristics and properties were done on site where the culms were taken. The culms height, internode length, internode diameter and culms wall thickness were measured from the cut base to the tip. The method used in the physical study was as previously reported (Sulthoni, 1989; Razak et al., 2007).  Moisture content (MC) Sample blocks representing the 2 age group (4 and 6 years), 3 height portions (bottom, middle and top) and 6 replicates, consisting of thirty-six bamboo samples were used. All sample blocks were cut from fresh culms were 10 mm × 10 mm × culms wall thickness. They were weighed and dried in an oven at 105±2°C for 48 hr until a constant weight was attained. The sample blocks were then placed for 30 min. in a desiccator for cooling-off period before re-weighing.  Basic density Sample for basic density studies were obtained from the middle portion of each internode at the bottom, middle and top culms portions and also from each node portion. Each sample blocks were cut to the size of 10 mm × 30 mm × culms wall thickness. Six replicates were used in the study. The sample blocks were oven dried for 48 h at 105±2°C until a constant weight were attained. The sample blocks were then weighed to give the oven dried weight. Results and Discussion Anatomical structure  The T.S of a bamboo culm exhibited a characterized numerous vascular bundles embedded in the parenchymatous ground tissue (Grosser and Liese, 1971). The culm tissue consists of two cell types: parenchyma cells and vascular bundles. The bamboo culm comprises Maya et al., 2013 about 50% parenchyma, 40% fibres and 10% vessels and sieve tubes (Liese, 1987). The fibres contribute 60-70% of the weight of the total culm tissue. For vascular bundle concentration determination, a 45 micron thick slice of the cross section (transverse section) was cut with a sliding microtome. The slice was dried in the oven at 40ºC for 8 hrs and was viewed at 4× under a light microscope, and the image was captured using a digital camera (Fig. 1).  Fig. 1. Cross section of a bamboo culm (magnification 10X)   The anatomical properties of Oxytenanthera monostigama of the two age-group and at different height of the culms (Table 1) showed slight increase in the fiber diameter (35.2 to36.1μm), fiber length (1.83 to 1.96 mm), increase in diameter occurred in the vessel (36.5 to 48.1 μm). The result also shows that there was no change in the vascular bundles distribution (2.5 no./ mm2) between 4 years old and the 6 years old bamboo culms at bottom, middle and top portions of bamboo. The physical characteristics of two age group bamboo studies are presented in Table 2. Their anatomical characteristics described in Table 1, revealed that there is not much differences between the height, the number of internodes, internodes length, and culms wall thickness of the 4 and 6 years old culm. There was however a slight increase in length of the internodes (23.70 to 24.4), internodes diameter (9.31 to 10.2 cm) from the 4 to the 6 years old bamboo culms.  Table 1. Anatomical properties of four (F) and six (S) year old Oxytenanathera monostigama  Anatomical structures Height F S Vascular bundle (VB) Frequency (VB no/mm2) Bottom Middle Top Mean 2.4 2.2 2.7 2.4 2.5 2.4 2.7 2.5 Vessel diameter (µm) Bottom Middle Top Mean 31.34 44.9 33.48 36.5 45.19 54.48 44.8 48.1 Fiber diameter (µm) Bottom Middle Top Mean 28.8 38.4 38.4 35.2 29.8 39.2 39.3 36.1 Fiber length (mm) Bottom Middle Top Mean 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.83 2.01 1.99 1.90 1.96  Table 2. Physical characteristics of two age group bamboo Characteristics Bamboo culm age 4 years 6 years Culm height (cm) 10 12 No. of internodes/culm 38 39 Internode length (cm)   Bottom  22.86 23.5 Middle  25.4 26.3 Top  22.86 23.6 Mean   23.70 24.4 Internode diameter (cm)   Bottom  11.43 12.3 Middle  10.16 11.6 Top  6.35 6.8 Mean   9.31 10.2 Culm wall thickness    Bottom  1.49 1.62 Middle  0.91 1.03 Top  0.78 0.84 Mean   1.06 1.16 Moisture content The mean moisture contents (MC) in green conditions of the cultivated Oxytenanathera monostigama decreased from 96.3 to 90.1 at bottom portion, 86.7 to 87.5% at middle portion and 95.8 to 89.4% in 4 and 6 years old culms, respectively. The differences in MC for the 4 and 6 years old culms at various internodes (Table 3) Maya et al., 2013 shows the mean moisture content at cross-section along the culm length of Oxytenanathera monostigama in green condition. Basic density: The basic density increases from 4 year to 6 year-old bamboo culms. The increase range in between 2.7 to 4.9 % (based on 4 years old culm value). The value of the basic density of 4 and 6 years old from internode between 5.19 and 12.03% are presented (Table 4).  Table 3. Moisture content (%) at cross-section along the culm length at green condition   4 years 6 years Bottom portion Outer layer Middle layer Inner layer Mean 85.6 92.8 110.5 96.3 79.3 88.6 102.4 90.1 Middle portion Outer layer Middle layer Inner layer Mean 75.3 86.2 98.8 86.7 77.8 89.3 95.6 87.5 Top portion Outer layer Middle layer Inner layer Mean 69.8 78.4 95.8 81.3 72.6 70.5 89.4 77.5  Table 4. Basic density along the culm height and age (N- Node, I – Internode) Portions  Bottom Middle Top 4 years (kg/m3) N 0.65 0.545 0.405 I 0.54 0.539 0.395 6 years (kg/m3) N 0.680 0.560 0.425 I 0.605 0.565 0.45 Increases in basic density (4 to 6 years) N (%) 4.6 2.7 4.9 I (%) 12.03 5.19 5.88  Conclusion The results showed that the six year old culms of cultivated Oxytenanathera monostigama possess an overall better properties compared four year old. The increase in the cell wall thickness in fibres is a part of the maturing process in the bamboo culms. There was very less difference in vessel diameter between 4 and 6 years old culms at the middle of the culms wall thickness. The anatomical structure in bamboo has a very strong correlation with the moisture content. The physical characteristics and properties of Oxytenanathera monostigama vary depending on the age and height along the culms. The culms taper from the middle portion towards the tip with a decrease in diameter and culms wall thickness. The age, height and position in the culms wall thickness influence the presence of moisture content in Oxytenanathera monostigama. The basic density was higher in the 6 years old culms than in the 4 years old, and increases from lower to upper internodes exhibiting the  a maturation process going on between the two age-group related to the two tissue types. References Abd Latif M (1992). Effect of age and height of three bamboo species on their machining properties. Journal of Tropical Forest Science, 5(4): 528-535. Abd Latif M, Mohd Tamizi M (1992). Variation in anatomical properties of three Malaysian bamboos from natural stands. Journal of Tropical Forest Science, 5(1): 90-96. Razak W, Murphy RJ, Hashim WS (2002). SEM observations on decay of Bambusa vulgaris bamboo exposed in tropical soil. Journal of Tropical Forest Products (JTFP), 8(2): 168-178.  Razak W, Mahmud S, Hashim WS (2005a). Fungal colonization and decay in tropical bamboo species. Journal of Applied Science, 5(5) 897-902.  Razak W, Hashim WS, Azmy M, Janshah M (2005b). Energy dispersive x-ray analysis on preservatives treated tropical bamboo species. Journal of Biological Science, 5(6): 837-841.  Razak W, Janshah M, Hashim WS, Shirley B (2007). Morphological and anatomical characteristics of Maya et al., 2013 managed natural bamboo stands Gigantochloa scortechinii. Journal of Bamboo and Rattan, 6(2): 115-122. Jane FW (1933). The microscopic examination of woody materials. Watson’s Microscopic Record No. 30: 1-9. Liese W (1985). Bamboos: Biology, silvics, properties, utilization. Schriftenreihe der GTZ, no. 180. Liese W, Weiner G (1997). Modification of bamboo culms structures due to ageing and wounding. The bamboos. Linnean Society Symposium Series No. 19. Published Academic Press: 313-322. Murphy RJ, Alvin KL (1997). Fibre maturation in the bamboo, Bambusa vulgaris. IAWA Journal, 18 (2): 147-156. Sulthoni A (1989). Bamboo: Physical properties, testing methods and means of preservation. Chapter 4, in a Workshop on Design and Manufacturing of Bamboo and Rattan Furniture held in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 3-14: 1-1. 

A Study on Anatomical and Physical Properties of Cultivated Bamboo (Oxytenanthera monostigama)

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A Study on Anatomical and Physical Properties of Cultivated Bamboo (Oxytenanthera monostigama)

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