# Some of the Physical and Mechanical Properties of  
Particleboard Made from Betung Bamboo  
(_Dendrocalamus asper_)  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Forest Products, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, IPB University, J. Lingkar Akademik, Damag, Bogor 16680, West Java, Indonesia; uifa23 [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (U.A.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (A.A.)2 Research Center for Biomaterials, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl. Raya Bogor Km. 46, Bogor 16911, West Java, Indonesia; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] 3 Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74075, USA; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] 3  
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culms when it is mature at the age of 3 to 5 years. The culms can reach as high as 20 to 30 m with a diameter of 8 to 20 cm with 40 cm of internode spacing [4]. The wall thickness of the culm is around 6 to 22 mm, with a density of 0.52 to 0.56 g/cm\({}^{3}\)[4; 5; 6; 7]. Due to its thick and strong shells, _D. asper_ culm is mainly used as a building component, in addition to the widely used manufacture for furniture, musical instruments, and household appliances [3]. The trend of using bamboo continues to increase and has even become a lifestyle, especially in Asia and some parts of South America [2]. In addition to the traditional uses of bamboo culm, bamboo has drawn interest for use in the manufacture of various composite panels including particleboard.  
The particleboard made of bamboo has advantages in terms of the availability of the raw material, which comes from a natural resource being renewable, fast-growing, and environmentally friendly. Furthermore, bamboo particles can be used as a raw material, thus allowing the use of waste from bamboo production processes as well as bamboo waste from fields [8; 9; 10; 11]. China, Malaysia, Costa Rica, India, and Vietnam have already developed bamboo particles at commercial scale [2; 12].  
Factors that affect the quality of bamboo particleboard are species, the age of the plants, the particle size, and the adhesive type [2]. Using bamboo as a raw material for panel manufacture has been discussed in previous studies [13; 14; 15]. Physical and mechanical properties of _D. asper_ bamboo particles using small-size particles with various adhesive types have been investigated [7; 11; 16; 17]. However, there is still a lack of information on different properties of particleboard panels manufactured from bamboo particularly their biological resistance including termites and decay as well as the surface quality. Previous studies carried out on _D. asper_ culm assessed the resistance to subterranean termites [18; 19], while [PERSON] [20] investigated the resistance to fungal attack. The majority of particleboard is used as a substrate for thin overlays. Therefore, their surface quality in terms of surface roughness is an important factor for the overall quality of the final product [21]. Since there is limited information on the above areas of bamboo particleboard panels, the objective of this work was to evaluate the physical, mechanical properties, and biological resistance of experimental particleboard manufactured from bamboo so that such an underutilized non-wood resource can be considered as a raw material for the value-added product with a better understanding of their characteristics.