bamboo shoot
ingredient / ingredient-bamboo-shoot-bambusa-oldhamii
リョクチクのたけのこ / Bambusa oldhamii
Bamboo shoot is the young shoot tip of Bambusa oldhamii (green bamboo), eaten in Taiwan, southern China, and elsewhere. Changes in tannins and bitterness-related compounds have been reported across growth stages from underground development to emergence above ground and sun exposure. It belongs to a different genus from temperate bamboo shoots common in Japan, such as Phyllostachys edulis.
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Reading the bitterness
Bambusa oldhamii (green bamboo) is a bamboo eaten in Taiwan and southern China; the edible portion is the young shoot tip, about 5 cm long. A 2023 integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis by the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences examined bitterness-related chemistry at 3 growth stages: underground growth in an etiolated state, immediately after emergence, and growth to 5–8 cm above ground with sunlight exposure. It belongs to a different genus from temperate bamboo shoots common in Japan, such as Phyllostachys edulis, and the study says these findings cannot be applied to those shoots directly.
The analysis reported significant positive correlations between tannin content and 7 bitterness-related compounds: amygdalin, apigenin, arbutin, salicin, hypoxanthine, L-arginine, and solanidine. It did not provide absolute quantities such as mg/g or human sensory evaluation; the account is limited to correlations and qualitative trends of increase.
A separate 2025 study sequenced the green-bamboo genome (1,446 Mb and 88,140 genes) and describes green bamboo as an example in which shoots exposed to sunlight for several days after emergence develop slight bitterness in their tips, while shoots grown underground have the best flavor. The first author is the same as for the 2023 study, however, so this is not an independent replication; the bitterness description is not a quantitative sensory-panel assessment.
The same 2025 study reported that correlation analysis of bitter metabolites and transcription-factor expression found many genes correlated with bitter metabolites in bHLH and HB families, including HB-BELL, HB-HD-Zip, HB-KNOX, HB-WOX, and HB-others. The authors propose that these transcription factors may regulate the biosynthesis or metabolism of bitter metabolites, but the analysis is correlational and does not establish causation.
In the same study’s weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), L-isoleucine, L-leucine, and L-tyrosine correlated positively with a co-expression module called MEturquoise, while salicylic acid, arbutin, dicumarol, genistin, stevioside, and amarogentin were identified as bitter metabolites negatively correlated with that module. This account includes neither absolute-content values nor human sensory evaluation.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: The 3 growth stages and the difference in genus from Phyllostachys edulis. / The positive correlation between tannins and 7 bitterness-related compounds.
Multi-omics approaches investigate the bitter flavor in the shoot of Bambusa oldhamii Munro
Checked for this overview: The difference in bitterness between sun-exposed and underground-grown shoots. / The correlation between bHLH and HB transcription factors and bitter metabolites as a proposed regulatory mechanism. / The list of bitter metabolites positively or negatively correlated with the WGCNA module.
Other names: Bambusa oldhamii (la), 綠竹筍 (zh), green bamboo shoot (en, identification medium)
Hypotheses and recipe candidates for this entry are on the Japanese page.
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Composition and content (2)
Scope: Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences; an integrated transcriptome-metabolome analysis of the tip portion (about 5cm), across 3 stages with 3 replicates
Note: Verbatim data on absolute content (mg/g, etc.) could not be confirmed within the scope of this extraction; it remains limited to a description of the correlation and a qualitative increasing trend. No human sensory evaluation was carried out. This is a different species, in a different genus, from moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), which is common in Japan, and no direct extrapolation is made.
Show data
ingredient-bamboo-shoot-bambusa-oldhamii —develops_bitterness_depending_on→ "A 3-stage progression of growth: the stage growing underground (etiolated/yellowed state) → immediately after emerging above ground → the stage where it has grown 5-8cm above ground and is exposed to sunlight. 7 bitterness-related chemicals (Amygdalin, Apigenin, Arbutin, Salicin, Hypoxanthine, L-arginine, and Solanidine) showed a significant positive correlation with tannin content."Scope: Layer: food. Integrated WGCNA analysis of broadly targeted metabolomics and transcriptomics across several stages of B. oldhamii shoot-tip growth.
Show data
ingredient-bamboo-shoot-bambusa-oldhamii —has_composition→ "WGCNA (gene co-expression network analysis) identified L-isoleucine, L-leucine, and L-tyrosine as bitter metabolites positively correlated with the MEturquoise co-expression module, and salicylic acid, arbutin, dicumarol, genistin, stevioside, and amarogentin as negatively correlated."Mechanism and receptors (1)
Scope: Layer: food. Correlation analysis of bitter metabolites with transcription-factor expression from a de novo assembly of the hexaploid B. oldhamii genome (PacBio+Hi-C, genome size 1,446 Mb) and integrated transcriptomic and broadly targeted metabolomic analyses across multiple growth stages (WGCNA).
Show data
ingredient-bamboo-shoot-bambusa-oldhamii —has_perceived_bitterness_affected_by→ "Transcription factors of the bHLH and HB types, including HB-BELL, HB-HD-Zip, HB-KNOX, HB-WOX, and HB-others. Their expression changes in response to environmental signals such as temperature and sunlight, and they are inferred to participate in bitterness formation during the transition from underground to above-ground growth by activating or suppressing expression of genes involved in bitter-metabolite biosynthesis and metabolism."