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Neem the Wonder Tree
NEEM OIL FACTS AND EXPERIENCES
TIPS ON USING NEEM OIL
AZADIRACHTIN COMPLETE PROFILE
NEEM OIL on CATTLE TICK
NEEM AND HEAD LICE
NEEM THE BITTER GEM
NEEM OIL FOR PEAR SAWFLIES
Neem Tree Profile
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| "NEEM - THE BITTER GEM " - "KARWA AMRIT" (Hindi) |
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| "NEEM - THE BITTER GEM " - "KARWA AMRIT" (Hindi) The author, Pushp K Jain, is a noted writer on Wildlife and also specialises in medicinal plants. Excerpts from "India - Perspectives" July 1998 Introduction :- During my 31 years of service in India, conducting, among other things, leprosy control programmes and publichealth clinics, I was amazed to find a most versatile medicinal plant - NEEM - which proved to be invaluable. The following article sums up many of my own experiences in using this plant / seed to bring healing to many sick people - even helping to diagnose victims of snake poisoning - and to help create a cleaner environment. During my years involved in caring for leprosy patients, while I did not find that NEEM has any effect on the leprosy bacillus, it is a really good cleansing agent for treating diseased skin and open sores. For this reason, it plays an important role in the production of soap, toothpaste, ointment and other medications. However, while NEEM is well known and extensively used in India, the real potential of this remarkable plant is yet to be understood by the world in general. -Kelli "NEEM is one tree, the very presence of which near one's abode, is considered healthy. This large, generally evergreen tree(except in drier parts of India where it is leafless for a short period during February - March), with a broad canopy, is a common sight in most parts of India It grows wild in the Siwalik Hills in north India and in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in south India. It has mostly been cultivated in drier parts of the country from where it escaped and became wild in many localities. The British in India used it extensively as a roadside and avenue tree. It has an almost straight trunk and spreading branches, covered with dark grey, cracked bark. The compound leaves are characteristic. They arise, crowded at the end of branchlets. Leaflets are alternative and opposite, oblique or subfalcate with toothed edges and pointed tips. Tender young leaves lend the tree a charming, soothing, green and shining canopy. Flowers are small, whitish or yellowish, appearing in large numbers in drooping axes from the leaf axils. Their sweet smell attracts buzzing swarms of insects as long as the bloom lasts. The green fruit, turning yellow on ripening, is small and pulpy, with a stone containing a single seed. Almost every part of the tree is bitter and finds medicinal use, so much so that the bitterness of the tree is proverbial and it is believed that the more bitter, the better. Neem extracts possess anti-diabetic, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties and have been used successfully in cases of stomach worms and ulcers. The tree and root barks and young fruit possess astringent, tonic and antiperiodic properties. The bark is beneficial in malaria and cutaneous diseases. Leaves are said to be discutient and their juice to be antithelmintic. The kernels yield a greenish yellow to brown, acrid, bitter fixed oil, known as "Margosa Oil" and also called "Nimbadi Thailam". Oil from nuts and leaves is a local stimulant, insecticide and antiseptic. Flowers are stimulant, tonic and stomachic. The bark exudes a clear, bright, amber coloured gum known as "East India Gum", which blackens with age. The gum is a stimulant, demulcent and tonic and is useful in catarrhal and other infections. Powdered bark or its fluid extract or decoction has been successfully tried in the past by numerous European and Indian doctors in cases of intermittent and other paroxysmal fevers. The above, with the addition of Coriander and and Ginger powder or bruised Cloves or Cinnamon powder is said to be superior to Quinine. Margosa Oil can be used as a dressing for foul ulcers, as a liniment to rheumatic affections and in headaches. It is a favourite application in tetanus, leprosy, uticaria, eczema, erysipelas, scrofula and skin diseases like ringworm, scabies, pemphigus etc.. It cures dental and gum troubles. Applications of warm oil, taken in betel leaf, provide relief in asthma. As an insecticide, it is used against lice. Oil, sniffed for a month, while keeping on a milk diet, stops greying of hair. Powdered kernels are also used for washing hair. Leaves, in the form of pulp, paste or poultice are useful antiseptic applications to pustules, indolent, glandular swellings, boils and ulcers. A paste of leaves and dry Ginger, mixed with a little rock-salt, is applied to eyes to remove inflammation, itching and pain. Powder of the leave, with that of Symplocos Racemosa, kept in a cotton pouch, is dipped in water and the extract so obtained is used as eye-drops to alleviate eye diseases. Leaves eaten daily act as a prophylactic to scorpion sting and snake poison. They are used to diagnose snake poisoning cases. A person affected by the poison, does not find the leaves bitter ".Such is the virtue of NEEM that almost all the text of Indian Systems of Medicine describe its uses" . This Gem of a Tree is yet to be fully discovered by the World at Large. |
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