Do you know that there are over twenty million air-purifiers installed in South Asia which belch out massive oxygen, gobbling up carbon-dioxide?
Yes, the government of Nature has entrusted this job of oxygenation to all greens, particularly to those trees popularly called ‘neem’ .
Apart from air-purification, neem performs a number of tasks which alleviate human ailments and suffering. Because of its great use, the ancient Indian treatises on architecture, Vastu Shastras, count it as one of the five sacred and auspicious trees that should be grown around the house. Practically all parts of the tree have a medicinal usage: flowers, leaves, bark, fruit and root. Neem oil extracted from the seeds is also of medicinal use. The leaves act as an insecticide. The gum discharged from the stem is used as a stimulant and tonic. It has a soothing effect on the skin.
Neem: A Profile
Latin Name: Azadirachta indica A. Juss. (Melia azaderachta L)
Indian Name: Nim, Nimb
Neem: How to use it
| Ailment | Prescription |
| Headache | Extracted juice of neem leaves used as nasal drops. |
| Earache | Similar drops in the ear |
| Falling of hair, lice, dandruff, infection in scalp | Water boiled with neem leaves and used frequently after cooling to wash hair. |
| Prevention of minor skin ailments | Regular massaging of body with neem oil. |
| Ear diseases | Neem leaves boiled in water and decoction, when warm used as ear drops. |
| Throat pain and infection | Crush neem leaves in water, remove fibres. Warm it up. Add little honey and gargle. |
| Excess flow of blood due to piles | Eat 3-4 unripe neem fruits. |
| Fever | Water boiled with neem leaves (decoction) along with a few grains of pepper. |
| Joint pains, rheumatism | Massaging with neem oil. |
| Boils, pimples, syphilitic sores, skin eruption, wounds, ulcers, glandular swellings | Leaf paste. |
| Lesions, open wounds | Washing with neem bark boiled in water. |
| Skin problems | Bathing with neem leaf soaked water, kept under the sun for several hours. |
| Headache/ stomach-ache | Neem flowers ground and applied overhead / stomach. |
| Piles (to check bleeding piles, 3 or 4 neem fruits can be administered with water) | 3 gm of the inner bark powder of neem along with 6 gm of jaggery powder (gur) taken every morning. |
| Leprosy (simultaneously, the patient should be massaged with sap) | Sap of the neem tree when taken in daily doses of 60gm for forty days continuously. |
| Gum diseases. Also firms loose teeth and removes bad odour | Use neem twigs as tooth brushes. |
| Certain types of deafness | Two drops of lukewarm neem oil put in the ear twice a day. |
| Small-pox, chicken-pox and other cutaneous infections | Paste of fresh leaves applied externally. |
| Ulcers, chronic skin diseases like ringworm, itch and scabies, rheumatism | Neem oil application |
Caution
Any plant substance, whether used as food or medicine, externally or internally can cause allergic reaction in some people. It is advised not to try self-diagnosis or attempt self treatment without consulting a medical professional or qualified practitioner.
Some Scientific Findings
Nimbidin, the bitter principle of neem oil was found effective in the treatment of gum bleeding and pyorrohoea (Bose, 1943).
Neembidol, another bitter principle was found to reduce fever (Murthy and Sirsi, 1958).
Nimbidin was also found to reduce paw Oedema considerably (Pillai and Shanthakumari,1981).
Water extracts of leaves and neem oil have been found to reduce blood sugar significantly and to prevent adrenalin-induced hyper glycaemia in experimental animals (Moorthy et al.1973; Sharma et al. Moosa, 1985.)
Neem oil was found to prevent pregnancy (Sinha and Riar, 1985).