Neem has many names: “Heal all”, Divine Tree”, “Village Pharmacy”, “Nature’s drugstore”, “Tree of thousand uses” “Neem - the wonder tree”. Some of the many uses, which have been scientifically validated, are shown below. Neem is truly a real multi-purpose tree.

It is used in agriculture (for example, as wood for implements, shade, pesticides, manure); in medicine (for example, as antipathogen, immuno-modulator, anti-diabetic); in forestry (for example, as timber, fuel, wind breaker, raw material) and in household (for example, as pest repellent, food preservative, soap). Some of the neem preparations are for internal administration, while others such as nasal drops, medicated oils or fats are for external application.

Neem became so popular in ancient India that some scholars believe that it was an ingredient of up to 50 per cent of Ayurvedic preparations. Each description in the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia (ancient Indian medicine book), for polyherbal neem preparation, has a list of herbs that are included, how much of each, boiled in how much water, for how long, how much to take and when.

Here are some examples of these polyherbal neem preparations from the Ayurvedic Phamacopoeia: fumigant for purification of air, skin diseases, oil for skin diseases and muscular pain, oil for ulcer, for small pox, decoction for skin diseases, poultice for itching, butter fat for skin diseases, a bitter tonic, oil for rheumatic disorders, for skin diseases, for baldness, nasal drops for alopecia, butter fat for latent fevers, powder for skin diseases, decoction for fevers, decoction for expelling worms, for skin diseases, decoctions from swellings, powder for fevers, butter fat for skin diseases, butter fat for ulcers, for rheumatoid arthritis.

Here are some more recent uses for herbal preparations made with neem extracts: general tonic for debility, for fevers particularly malaria, antiseptic for eyes, tonic for building resistance in the body, decoction for fevers, with turmeric and sugar for throat problems, oil for massage in dry eczema, leucoderma and rheumatism, for skin diseases like white patches, ringworm, in leprosy and white patches, for skin diseases of different aetiology, headache, diabetes and obesity, in chronic skin diseases, for obstinate diseases, respiratory and heart problems. All these uses are backed by scientific evidence.