What is known about the medicinal potential of bamboo?

Bamboos are considered one of China’s four noble plants and have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Despite that, what is really known about the chemical composition and biological activities of bamboos? Which species have been studied? What trials have been done to test their medicinal properties? This paper compiled studies of the last 11 years about phytochemical and biological activities of bamboos aiming a critical analysis of the results to provide perspectives and directions for future research using bamboo species as a potential source of drug leads. This review gathers available information on major scientific databases from the period of 2007–2018. A total of 136 papers regarding 87 bamboo species and 24 genera were compiled. Studies regarding phytochemical and or bioactivity of species from the Olyreae tribe (herbaceous bamboo) were not found. Phenolic compounds were the major class of secondary metabolites reported for bamboos species, followed by coumarins and alkaloids. Antioxidant capacity was the most performed bioassay. Phyllostachyshas been the most studied genus. This review highlights a big lack of knowledge regarding American bamboos, mainly for the herbaceous species. Although bamboos are known to have a diversity of flavonoids, there are other classes of constituents that should be better studied. There are few bamboo species with their in vivo biological potential tested. Therefore, bamboos have economically important secondary metabolite classes with a possible medicinal application, but further studies on phytochemistry and in vivo assays are still needed to better evaluate their benefits to human health.