NEEM: the Divine Tree, Azadirachta Indica
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NEEM Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants—Industrial Profiles Individual volumes in this series provide both industry and academia with in-depth coverage of one major medicinal or aromatic plant of industrial importance. Edited by Dr Roland Hardman Volume 1 Valerian edited by Peter J.Houghton Volume 2 Perilla edited by He-Ci Yu, Kenichi Kosuna and Megumi Haga Volume 3 Poppy edited by Jeno Bernáth Volume 4 Cannabis edited by David T.Brown Volume 5 Neem H.S.Puri Other volumes in preparation Allium, edited by K.Chan Artemisia, edited by C.Wright Basil, edited by R.Hiltunen and Y.Holm Caraway, edited by É. Németh Cardamom, edited by PN.Ravindran and KJ.Madusoodanan Chamomile, edited by R.Franke and H.Schilcher Cinnamon and Cassia, edited by P.N.Ravindran and S.Ravindran Colchicum, edited by V.Simánek Curcuma, edited by B.A.Nagasampagi and A.P.Purohit Ergot, edited by V.Kren and L.Cvak Eucalyptus, edited by J.Coppen Ginkgo, edited by T.van Beek Ginseng, by W.Court Hypericum, edited by K.Berger Buter and B.Buter Illicium and Pimpinella, edited by M.Miró Jodral Kava, edited by Y.N.Singh Licorice, by L.E.Craker, L.Kapoor and N.Mamedov Piper Nigrum, edited by P.N.Ravindran Plantago, edited by C.Andary and S.Nishibe Please see the back of this book for other volumes in preparation in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants—Industrial Profiles Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. NEEM The Divine Tree Azadirachta indica H.S.Puri Herba Indica India harwood academic publishers Australia • Canada • China • France • Germany • India Japan • Luxembourg • Malaysia • The Netherlands • Russia Singapore • Switzerland Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Singapore. Amsteldijk 166 1st Floor 1079 LH Amsterdam The Netherlands British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-203-30431-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-34400-6 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 90-5702-348-2 (Print Edition) ISSN 1027-4502 Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. CONTENTS Foreword vii Preface to the Series ix Preface xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Plant Sources 9 3 Chemical Constituents 23 4 Cultivation 33 5 Plant Raw Material 55 6 Quality Assurance of Plant Raw Materials 59 7 Wood for Fuel and Timber 61 8 Processing of Plant Raw Materials 65 9 Traditional Uses 77 10 Therapeutic Indications and Pharmacological Studies 87 11 In Veterinary Practice 111 12 Haircare and Bodycare Products 113 13 Toxicology 115 14 Neem in Agriculture 121 15 Neem Seed Cake as a Manure and Nitrification Inhibitor 129 16 Poultry and Cattle Feed 133 17 Neem and Pollution 141 v Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. vi CONTENTS 18 Neem and Household Pests 145 19 Protection of Food Materials 151 20 Composite Plant for Utilization of Neem 159 21 Patents on Neem 163 Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. FOREWORD For medicinal and aromatic plants the clock has slowly, but surely, turned a full circle. The use of plants for health care started, as recorded in Indian and Chinese treatises available of that time, about 2 to 3 millennia before Christ and reached its zenith in the first millennium AD. These mention the use of plants and plant-based preparations in human and animal health care and occasionally for the preparation of house-hold products. Thereafter for several centuries the plant materials occupied a pre-eminent position in the trousseau of a traditional practicing healer. It was only at the beginning of the second millennium that alchemic and mineral-based products also started appearing. The plants and herbals nonetheless continued to be widely used until the industrial revolution in Europe brought in synthetic products for various kinds of usages. These products, because of their ease of preparation and administration, led to a slide in the popularity of plant and herbal-based products. Among other reasons responsible for this was a belief (which still persists to a large extent) that most of the plant-based products/herbals are non-standard preparations and hence lack quality and efficacy. Noticeable batch-to-batch variations for the same products and lack of therapeutic consistency further eroded to some extent the credibility of these products. At the present time, however, the increasing environmental degradation due to a burgeoning synthetic products industry has rung alarm bells the world over. Several scientists in various countries are now engaged in discovering or rediscovering the usefulness of plants and herbals for value-added products. Their quest for rediscovering the usefulness of plant materials has its basis in those leads or references which are mentioned in folklore or traditional systems as indigenous cures for several ailments. This resurgence of interest has enormous economic and commercial implications as well. However, at the same time the public at large and also scientists are conscious of the fact that if indiscriminately commercially exploited, this plant wealth may not last long. This has given rise to a paradoxical situation where, on the one hand, the public wants ‘green’ products, be it for medicinal use, personal hygiene or for its palate, but on the other, dwindling resources make us wary of environmental denudation. A balance has to be struck between demand and supply and in my view it can be best taken care of by sustained and structured ‘social forestry’ programs with an emphasis on planting those species which are proven sources of herbal drugs or phytomedicines. If we dwell on this further, we find that this attitudinal change in the learned and lay public towards products originating from plant sources is basically because of a belief that ‘green’ products have distinct therapeutic advantages over allopathy in treating ailments like hepatitis, asthma, diabetes, arthritis, immune disorders, some tumours, etc. Likewise, cosmetics and biocides from plant sources are popular because they are soft for human use and ecofriendly. Commercial estimates indicate that 70 to 80 percent of the population in developing countries, accounting for over 50 percent of world population, depends partly or entirely on herbal remedies. According to Indian Medicinal Plants: A Sectoral Study, a report recently brought out by India’s Exim Bank, the global trade in medicinal plants is estimated to be approximately vii Copyright © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group. viii FOREWORD US$60 billion, of which India’s share is about US$700 million. The world demand for herbal products has been quoted to be growing at a rate of 7 percent per annum. This growth in demand, especially in developing countries, is partly due to the ready availability of herbal remedies, a shortage of practitioners of modern medicines in many of these countries, and the socio-cultural background of the users. Farnsworth et al. (in bulletin of the World Health Organisation 63, 965–85, 1985) have mentioned that even in developed countries, plant drugs are proving to be of great importance. In the USA, for example, 25 percent of all prescriptions contained plant extracts or active principles derived from higher plants. At this juncture, the importance of a plant like Neems come to the fore. Neem, a large evergreen tree, commonly found throughout the Indo-Malaysia region, has been the subject matter of numerous scientific studies. Scientists the world over have carried out extensive work on its botanical, medicinal, industrial and agricultural usages. Practitioners of the Indian ayurvedic system advise the use of Panchang (five parts) of neem, i.e. leaves, bark, fruit, flower and root, for various applications. The seed is another extremely useful part, especially for its oil. Extracts of various parts of neem have proven medicinal properties—anthelmintic, antifungal, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiviral, antifertility, etc. It is for these properties only that the practitioners of ayurvedic, siddha, unani tibb and homeopathic systems of medicine make extensive use of its parts. It is my firm belief that it is a only matter of time before even the allopathic system starts to make use of its medicinal properties in a regular way. Neem’s use as an insecticide and pesticide is also well documented. There is no gainsaying the fact that its economic and commercial value lies in every single part having a proven utility.