SRS -- Trade was happening long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and seeds might well have been swapped.

I'm no expert in this area, but I thought there was no evidence of oriental/pre-Columbian trade or even contact, although there are some suspicions it may have happened. Tomatoes came originally from the Andes (what's now Peru) and historians can find no evidence they were used as food. Indeed, none of the languages of the area even have a word for 'tomato.'

I banged off a note to the company that published the book with the 'bamboo seeds' claim and asked them to confirm their source. They replied yesterday saying they'd check into it and get back. Seems to me if it is true it would turn the conventional view of history on its head and we'd have heard before now. Stay tuned.