A boost for bamboo-based blouses and blankets

Bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan. Click here for more information.

NEW ORLEANS, April 6, 2008—Rising interest in “sustainable” fabrics is fostering a bamboo boom, in which bamboo-based fabrics are hitting the market as a leading eco-friendly textile.

Chemists in Colorado now are reporting solutions to two major problems with bamboo fabrics that may speed adoption of this amazing plant — which grows like Jack’s beanstalk without special care — in garments and other consumer products.

Reporting at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Subhash Appidi and Ajoy Sarkar, Ph.D., from Colorado State University have discovered a way of making bamboo fabric that is resistant to the sun’s damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation and has anti-bacterial properties.

Widely available in Japan, China, India and other countries, bamboo fabric is soft, durable and elastic. It hangs as gracefully as silk, and has an attractive, lustrous sheen. A leading option in the so-called “ethically produced” clothing market, bamboo is one of the world’s fastest growing plants, reaching maturity in about 3-4 years, compared to 25 to 70 years for commercial tree species in the U.S.

“Bamboo is environmentally friendly,” says Appidi. “Pesticides and other agents are necessary to grow most other natural fibers — there is nothing like that in bamboo production.”

But despite bamboo’s promise as an environmentally friendly fiber, Appidi says untreated bamboo fabric has plenty of room for improvement. Raw bamboo fabric lets almost all damaging UV radiation pass through and reach the skin. And while many tout bamboo’s inherent anti-bacterial properties, Appidi found that untreated bamboo fabric did not live up to antimicrobial expectations.