Review on the formation of bamboo shoot palatability and its main influencing factors

Abstract

Bamboo shoots are traditional forest vegetables in China and also large export agricultural products. Palatability is an important index to reflect the economic value, market potential, and quality of bamboo shoots. However, the basic research on the formation of bamboo shoot palatability and development of upgrading technology are relatively weak, which limits the development and application of bamboo shoot quality improvement technology to a certain extent. This paper reviews the main evaluation indicators for bamboo shoot palatability, summarizes the main research results, and puts forward prospects for future research. Current studies on bamboo shoot palatability mainly focus on the following aspects: the interspecific differences in bamboo shoot palatability, the effects of environmental factors on palatability, and the impact of management measures on palatability. The main conclusions are as follows: Sugar, acids, phenols, fibers and amino acids are the chief indicators for evaluating the palatability of bamboo shoots. The formation of palatability depends not only on genetic factors of bamboo species, but also on climate factors and soil texture. Bamboo shoot palatability can be improved by mulching cultivation, fertilization, regulation and control of stand structure, and selection of appropriate shooting time, but there are obvious differences among species in their effects. Future studies on bamboo shoot palatability should focus on such aspects as constructing comprehensive evaluation indicators and methods, exploring the effects of multi-factor interaction on the palatability, revealing the formation mechanism of palatability from the ecological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular aspects, selecting high-quality shoots with good palatability, high yield and strong ecological adaptability for large-scale cultivation, as well as developing the palatability improvement techniques from selection of cultivation environment, precise supplement of soil nutrients, environmental control of shoot bud germination, and treatment of bamboo shoot organs. [Ch, 66 ref.]