Are bamboo shoots toxic?

[kahlor]

So far, my experience with eating bamboo shoots has been opening a can from the grocery store. My parents have bamboo growing on their land and I have thought about harvesting the shoots to eat. However:
1. I do not know what kind of bamboo it is.
2. While searching on the internet, I have come across a couple of things that mention bamboo shoots have some form of cyanide in them.

Can someone set me straight on this?
Thanks!

[CaroleMeckes]

One school suggest cooking the shoots and changing the water

[Mr.Madake]

Originally Posted by kahlor

So far, my experience with eating bamboo shoots has been opening a can from the grocery store. My parents have bamboo growing on their land and I have thought about harvesting the shoots to eat. However:
1. I do not know what kind of bamboo it is.
2. While searching on the internet, I have come across a couple of things that mention bamboo shoots have some form of cyanide in them.

Can someone set me straight on this?
Thanks!

Indeed. Raw bamboo shoots have Cyanogenic Glycosides in them that can make you very sick or even kill you. Once ingested the chemical starts reacting to form HCN (Hydrogen Cyanide) starving you of 02. Cooking the shoots breaks down the glycosoides.

[sasa fool]

Originally Posted by Mr.Madake

Indeed. Raw bamboo shoots have Cyanogenic Glycosides in them that can make you very sick or even kill you. Once ingested the chemical starts reacting to form HCN (Hydrogen Cyanide) starving you of 02. Cooking the shoots breaks down the glycosoides.

As do apples in the seeds, but in both cases it takes some serious quantity over time to have an adverse reaction. I second the cooking notion but I eat raw shoots every spring as I work in my groves and can attest to no ill effects from nibbling them. Most species are acrid and after the initial sweet flavor the acrid takes over and one becomes dis-inclined to eating much more. A few species though are not so acrid and I like to munch them raw...the shoots that is, I am clothed at the time.

[dkdivot28]

I live in Parksville and I am trying to source bamboo nursery or growers locally.

Any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Mr.Madake

Indeed. Raw bamboo shoots have Cyanogenic Glycosides in them that can make you very sick or even kill you. Once ingested the chemical starts reacting to form HCN (Hydrogen Cyanide) starving you of 02. Cooking the shoots breaks down the glycosoides.

[Mr.Madake]

Originally Posted by sasa fool

As do apples in the seeds, but in both cases it takes some serious quantity over time to have an adverse reaction. I second the cooking notion but I eat raw shoots every spring as I work in my groves and can attest to no ill effects from nibbling them. Most species are acrid and after the initial sweet flavor the acrid takes over and one becomes dis-inclined to eating much more. A few species though are not so acrid and I like to munch them raw...the shoots that is, I am clothed at the time.

Apple seeds and cherry pits and apricots have HCN, but I pretty sure they don't have the Cyanogenic glyosoides in them. Moso shoots have been linked to stomach cancer in Japan and here in South Korea. The worst plant that contains CG is Cassava root. You're right, it takes repeated exposure to cause harm.

[RTSlater]

Check out the internet for sources in Vancouver or Victoria or look in Stanley Park. I cannot believe that Vancouver or Victoria don't have Bamboo groves in some of their parks. You don't have to buy much: I started with 6 or seven Rhizomes of Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens, (I think),about 6 inches long each. After about tens years I have a grove 10 feet by twenty feet and the tallest are twenty feet high and my municipality is threatening a lawsuit. It's pretty conservative here. This is in St. Louis Missouri, after all. Your climate is much more suited for Bamboo than here, both climatically and politically.
RTSlater