The information available on Neem in the Texts of Ayurveda as well as popular belief is extremely varied and the plant of Neem has many relatives which serve similar or sometimes even better purposes.
Neem Therapy: Nutrients in Neem
Neem leaf is one such source where vitamin A is just abundant. The sweet fruits are also edible and are in fact eaten much during famine. Leaves are often cooked and eaten as adjuncts in meals. Even its flowers and tender leaves can be eaten by themselves in curry or along with other greens. In fact, neem leaf was a regular leafy vegetable during the times of Charaka.
Neem Therapy: Medicinal Properties of Neem
(a) The parts used: Almost all portions of the neem plant are useful in medicine: root, bark of the main trunk and the branches, leaf, flower, the wood, the gum, the exuding liquor or mad, or the neem toddy, the unripe and the ripe fruit, the mature seed and the oil extracted from it, and so on. As far as the bark is concerned it is its inner layer rather than the outer and particularly the fresh rather than the old and the stored bark that is preferred as the source of the medicine. The bark is an officially accepted drug in Indian Pharmacopea or the official stock list of Medicines and is called Azerachtl Cortex.
Neem Therapy: Botany of Neem
The familiar Neeme plant belongs to the scientific family, Meliaceae. The plants of this family have some general medicinal properties. They are effective against kushta or skin diseases, worm infection and fever. They are bitter in taste but nourishing, astringent viz. have a power of contracting organic tissues (thus aiding healing up of the wounds) and induce vomiting.
Neem Therapy: The Plant of Neem
Neem or nirnba as it is called in Sanskrit is a plant of varied uses in Ayurveda since ancient times and is highly extolled by expert physicians as well as practitioners of folk lore medicine. It is a much prized household remedy also. We have popular neem toothpaste and powder and the neem soap. These are tributes of modern pharmaceutical industry or the manufacturers of medicine to this age-old reputation of neem in oral hygiene and keeping up the health of skin.
Neem Therapy: Neem to Treat Skin Diseases
Neem is useful for many diseases in man. But its major fields are leprosy, skin diseases and diseases of blood. There is nothing like neem in treating skin diseases particularly.
Neem Therapy: Neem to Treat Small Pox
As in kushta, neem has been extensively utilised for the diseases of small pox, measles, cataract associated with small pox, German measles, eczema, sarcoptes (itch-mite) and scabies. It is employed in general dressing of the afflictions of these diseases in various stages as well as a sure, easily available and cheap remedy for all of them. There are many other bitter drugs employed similarly. However, since small pox is now totally eradicated in India, all this is mainly of historical interest now.
Neem Therapy: Neem to Treat Leprosy
From very ancient times in India, the use of neem In leprosy has been prevalent. In the times of Charaka a decotion of the five organs (bark, leaf, root, flower and seed) of neem was given in the early stages of leprosy. Among the six decoctions that Charaka mentions for kushta there is one with neem and the bitter patola or the snake gourd; this was recommended for external application during the bathing of the patient.
Neem Therapy: Medicinal Uses of Neem Leaves
The tender leaves are astringent, i.e. contractive of tissues and hence healing. They promote vata dosha and are useful in curing diseases of the blood (for eg. rakta pitta or plethora where a sudden and automatic outflow or haemorrlvige of the blood occurs, as far instance when the nose bleeds out suddenly), diseases of the eye and diseases of the skin. They are good in curing tastelessness or anorexia, and the effects of poison.
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Neem Therapy: Medicinal Uses of Neem’s Unripe Fruits
Unripe fruits are also useful in splenic enlargements, bleeding piles; worm infections and urinary disorders. Ripe fruits are’ useful in eye diseases and healing the lesions of the wounds in general. They are particularly useful in tuberculosis. They are used externally in the former case and internally in the latter. The pulp of the fruit is a destroyer of worms and skin diseases; this is eaten then in small numbers.
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