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Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, margosa, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of the two species in the genus Azadirachta. It is Native species to the Indian subcontinent and to parts of Southeast Asia, but is naturalized and grown around the world in Tropics and Subtropics areas. Its fruits and seeds are the source of neem oil. Nim is a Hindustani noun derived from Sanskrit nimba (निंब).Compact Oxford English Dictionary (2013), Neem, page 679, Third Edition 2008 reprinted with corrections 2013, Oxford University Press.Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell (1996), Hobson-Jobson, Neem, page 622, The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, Wordsworth Reference. (This work was first published in 1886)Encarta World English Dictionary (1999), Neem, page 1210, St. Martin's Press, New York.
White and fragrant are arranged in more-or-less drooping Axillary bud which are up to long. The , which branch up to the third degree, bear from 250 to 300 flowers. An individual flower is long and wide. Protantrism, bisexual flowers and male flowers exist on the same individual tree.
The fruit is a smooth (glabrous), olive-like drupe which varies in shape from elongate oval to nearly roundish, and when ripe is by . The fruit skin (exocarp) is thin and the bitter-sweet pulp (mesocarp) is yellowish-white and very fibrous. The mesocarp is thick. The white, hard inner shell (endocarp) of the fruit encloses one, rarely two, or three, elongated (kernels) having a brown seed coat. The margosa tree is similar in appearance to its relative, the chinaberry or bakain, Melia azedarach, with which it may be confused. Melia azedarach also has toothed leaflets and similar looking fruit. One difference is that margosa leaves are Pinnation but chinaberry leaves are twice- and thrice-pinnate.
In April 2015, A. indica was declared a class B and C weed in the Northern Territory, Australia, meaning its growth and spread must be controlled and plants or propagules are not allowed to be brought into the territory. It is illegal to buy, sell, or transport the plants or seeds. Its declaration as a weed came in response to its invasion of waterways in the "Top End" of the territory.
After being introduced into Australia, possibly in the 1940s, A. indica was originally planted in the Northern Territory to provide shade for cattle. Trial plantations were established between the 1960s and 1980s in Darwin, Queensland, and Western Australia, but the Australian margosa industry did not prove viable. The tree has now spread into the savanna, particularly around waterways, and naturalised populations exist in several areas.
In addition to azadirachtin and related , the seed oil contains , diverse , nimbolide, , and beta-sitosterol. The yellow, bitter oil has a garlic-like odor and contains about 2% of limonoid compounds. The leaves contain quercetin, , , and vitamin C.
In small children, margosa oil is toxic and can lead to death. Margosa may also cause , infertility, and Hypoglycemia.
In Southern India and the Middle-East, neem twigs are often used as a teeth-cleaning twig.
In 1995, the European Patent Office (EPO) granted a patent on an anti-fungal product derived from margosa to the United States Department of Agriculture and W. R. Grace and Company. The Indian government challenged the patent when it was granted, claiming that the process for which the patent had been granted had been in use in India for more than 2,000 years. In 2000, the EPO ruled in India's favour, but W. R. Grace appealed, claiming that prior art about the product had never been published. On 8 March 2005, that appeal was lost and the EPO revoked the Neem patent.
==Gallery==
Uses
Margosa leaves are dried in India and placed in cupboards to prevent insects from eating clothes, and in containers in which rice and wheat are stored. The flowers are also used in many Indian festivals like Ugadi. See below: #Association with Hindu festivals in India.
Culinary
The tender shoots and flowers of the margosa tree are eaten as a vegetable in India. A soup-like dish called (வேப்பம் பூ சாறு) in Tamil language (translated as "margosa flower rasam") made of the flower of neem is prepared in Tamil Nadu. In Bengal, young margosa leaves are fried in oil with tiny pieces of aubergine (brinjal). The dish is called nim bēgun bhājā (নিম বেগুন ভাজা) and is the first item during a Bengali meal, which acts as an appetizer. It is eaten with rice.
Margosa is used in parts of mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia, Laos (where it is called kadao ກະເດົາ), Thailand (where it is known as sadao สะเดา), Myanmar (where it is known as ta.ma တမာ) and Vietnam (where it is known as sầu đâu and is used to cook the salad gỏi sầu đâu). Even if lightly cooked, the flavour is quite bitter, and the food is not consumed by all inhabitants of these countries. In Myanmar, young Leaves and flower buds are boiled with tamarind fruit to soften its bitterness and eaten as a vegetable. Pickled margosa leaves are also eaten with tomato and fish paste sauce in Myanmar.
Traditional medicine
Products made from margosa trees have been used in the traditional medicine of India for centuries, but there is insufficient clinical evidence to indicate any benefits of using margosa for medicinal purposes.
Pest and disease control
Margosa is a key ingredient in non-pesticidal management (NPM), providing a natural alternative to synthetic pesticides. Margosa seeds are ground into powder that is soaked overnight in water and sprayed on the crop. To be effective, it must be applied repeatedly, at least every ten days. Margosa does not directly kill . It acts as an anti-feedant, repellent, and egg-laying deterrent and thus protects the crop from damage. The insects starve and die within a few days. Margosa also suppresses the subsequent hatching of their eggs. Margosa-based fertilizers have been effective against southern armyworm. Margosa cake may be used as a fertilizer. Silver nanoparticles made from the bark and leaves of A. indica were also highly effective at killing first- and fourth-stage Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito larvae, but they worked less well against the pupae and adult mosquitoes.
Other uses
Genome and transcriptomes
Margosa genome and transcriptomes from various organs have been sequenced. Expressed sequence tags were identified by generation of subtractive hybridization libraries of margosa fruit, leaf, fruit mesocarp, and fruit endocarp.
Cultural and social impact
The name Nimai ('born under a neem tree'), of the Bhakti movement Vaishnavism saint and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (believed to be an incarnation of Radha Krishna in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and ISKCON) is due to his birth under a neem tree.
Biotechnology
The biopesticide produced by extraction from the tree seeds contains limonoid . Currently, the extraction process has disadvantages such as contamination with fungi and heterogeneity in the content of limonoids due to genetic, climatic, and geographical variations. To overcome these problems, production of limonoids from plant cell suspension and hairy root cultures in bioreactors has been studied, including the development of a two-stage bioreactor process that enhances growth and production of limonoids with cell suspension cultures of A. indica.
See also
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