ENHANCING THE LIFESPAN AND DURABILITY OF BAMBOO (MAI PAI) IN THAILAND

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify local knowledge that can be used to treat bamboo
to render it more resistant to fungi, termites, and snout beetles with the ultimate goal of extending its
life, particularly for construction usage. The experimental setup focuses on three species of bamboo (Bambusa bambos bamboo, rough giant bamboo, and Bambusa vulgaris bamboo), three environments
(darkroom (indoor not exposed to light), indoor, and outdoor), and five traditional approaches to
preserve bamboo (allowed to dry naturally, baked without soaking, baked and then soaked in water,
baked and then soaked in saline, and baked and then soaked in wood vinegar). All three species of
bamboo, the treatments used, and the impact of local wisdom were statistically significant at the 0.05
level. To prevent fungal infestation, all three bamboo species were baked and then soaked in water
or saline before being placed in a darkroom or another indoor environment to dry. Only Bambusa
bambos bamboos was found to be suitable for using outdoors. For all three species of bamboo, baking
followed by soaking in wood vinegar was found to provide great results in protection against the
growthof fungus. However, the applied treatments did not yield protection against termites in any
bamboo.The significance level of the finding that baking extends the useful life of bamboo is 0.05.