Neem – The Magical Herb

Neem has been used traditionally for many centuries. In Southern Asian County ( Nepal, India) it is known as "the village pharmacy". But neem is still relatively unknown in the western world.

Name in other languages

The English name neem is borrowed from Hindi; in English it is also known as Indian Lilac. The Urdu name is the same as that used in Nepali, Hindi, and Bengali (নিম). Other vernacular names include Nimm(Punjabi), Vembu (Tamil), Arya Veppu (Malayalam), Azad Dirakht (Persian), Nimba,Arishta,Picumarda (Sanskrit, Oriya), Limdo (Gujarati language) Kadu-Limba (Marathi), Dongoyaro (in some Nigerianlanguages), Margosa, Neem (نيم) (Arabic), Nimtree, Vepu (వేపు), Vempu (வேம்பு), Vepa (వేప) (Telugu), Bevu( ಕಹಿ ಬೇವು (Kannada), Kodu nimb (Konkani), කොහොඹ (Kohomba, Sinhala), Tamar(Burmese), sầu đâu, xoan Ấn Độ (Vietnamese), ស្ដៅ (Sdao, Khmer), สะเดา (Sadao, Thai), אזדרכת (Hebrew), "Maliyirinin" (Bambara language) and Paraiso (Spanish). In East Africa it is also known asMuarubaini (Swahili).

Discover The Neem Tree

Azadirachta indica - That's the botanical name for neem. Indica gives away the tree's origin, India.

The whole name, though of course latinized, comes from the Persian language Farsi:

• Azad means free
• Dirakht means tree
• i-Hind means of Indian origin
  

So the botanical name translates into: "The Free Tree Of India"

Another common name for neem is Margosa. (It has many more names.)

Neem belongs to the botanical family Meliaceae. That means it is related to the mahogany tree. (The Meliaceae family is also called the mahogany family)

Neem is a very attractive, fast growing and evergreen tree.

It has a straight trunk and the tree can reach a height of 30 metres and more, though 15 to 20 metres is the average. The bark is hard, rough and scaly, fissured even in young trees. It's often brown, but in older trees it can be pale or greyish-black.

Spreading branches with dark green leaves form a dense, round canopy, up to 20 metres across. (It makes a very good shade tree).

Leaves are alternate (not opposite each other along the branches) and consist of several leaflets with serrated edges. You can see the leaves in the banner of this site.

The flowers are large clusters of up to 250 individual white blooms. The whole cluster can be quite large, but the individual flowers are only a few mm across. They look inconspicuous, however, the scent is just heavenly. You can smell a flowering neem tree from miles away.

The olive like, edible fruit is oval to round and thin skinned. (Edible does not mean tasty...) It is green initially and turns yellow when ripe. Every fruit contains one, and sometimes two or three, seeds.

Neem is easy to grow in a wide range of temperatures and conditions, and the tree can live for 150 to 200 years.

All parts of the neem plant have been used for many centuries in India. From India the tree and the knowledge about its many uses and benefits has spread. Today neem grows in many countries across the world, and wide range of neem products is available commercially.

Available In USA: http://neemtreefarms.com/living-plants-c-124.html