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Ramona Home Journal - May 2005 - Page 12
The Healing Tree — Ancient
Evergreen Called ‘The Village Pharmacy’
By Jim Evans
Most
people have never heard of the Neem tree — probably because it is
indigenous to India — but this remarkable evergreen has been around
for thousands of years and is making inroads in California. Its
medicinal healing properties have been recorded as far back as
4000
B.C., and it often has been called “the village pharmacy” because of
its multiple uses in the treatment of everything from conjunctivitis
to hemorrhoids.
The Neem
is tall, typically growing to a height of 60 to 80
feet, and is mostly grown as a shade tree in its native India rather
than in the forest. It is a flowering tree that usually produces
white, honey-scented flowers between February and May, and bears a
bitter but colorful fruit. The Neem also can be grown as a
houseplant, and it will grow only as large as the pot in which it is
planted. It has a strong root system and grows well in sand, clay
or saline soil, which probably would make it easily adaptable to
Ramona. It already has been successfully introduced to other parts
of California, with good results. It can tolerate extreme
temperatures well but does not usually survive frost or cold
temperatures for very long, so more mountainous areas like Julian—
even though just a few miles away — likely would not support a
population of Neems.
Medical
uses
Everything about the Neem tree, from bark to roots, seems to offer
some home remedy. For example, it is said that chewing the leaves
of the Neem protects the body from diseases such as high blood
pressure and
diabetes, and encourages immunity to certain skin ailments. Various
formulations of neem leaves can be used topically for the treatment
of skin conditions such as herpes, psoriasis, chicken pox and
measles, and it has been used successfully to treat hair loss and
premature graying, reports say. Neem also has proved effective in
the treatment of head lice, ringworm and athlete’s foot fungus.
Mixtures of juice from neem leaves can be used as eyedrops to treat
conjunctivitis and eardrops to reduce inflammation, reports say, and
mixed with ginger juice and taken internally, the juice is said to
relieve painful menstrual cramps. Powder from the seeds, mixed with
alum, has been used as an effective toothpaste, and green neem twigs
have been used as toothsticks or toothbrushes. Neem is also a very
effective topical insect repellent, which leads to another category.
Pest
control
Extracts
from the Neem have long been used as a natural pesticide influencing
more than 200 species of insects, including
grasshoppers, crickets, aphids, beetles, moths, flies, threadworms,
ants, cockroaches, mosquitoes, fruit flies, snails and more.
Surprisingly, it does not have a deleterious effect on earthworms
(in fact, it actually increases the earthworm population) and other
beneficial insects such as honeybees and spiders. The use of neem
extracts does not always have an immediate “kill factor” with regard
to pests, like most conventional commercial insecticides. It works
more slowly by sterilizing the adult insects to prevent reproduction
and generally repelling both the larvae and adults of different
insect species from feeding on plants and crops. More important,
perhaps, is that neem products are natural. They are biodegradable
and nontoxic to humans, animals and birds, so they are safe to use
around livestock and pets. Neem products also do not require
protective clothing or masks to apply.
Plant
viruses and fungi
Neem
products have been used successfully in the treatment of certain
plant diseases such as yellow mosaic of grain legumes, ragged-stunt
virus (rice), tungo virus (also rice), and others. And, while they
cannot kill fungi, neem products protect seeds against fungal
diseases and prevent the formation of additional fungi. Sound too
good to be true? Well, neem products are now being mixed with kelp
fiber (see “Fighting Wildfires with Dirt — Increasing Moisture
Rentention with Kelp Soil Amendments,” Ramona Home Journal, Dec.
2004) to both enhance the growth of plants and
protect them from pests and disease at the same time. It’s an
example of Mother Nature joining with Mother Nature to make things
even better.
Additional
research and information about the remarkable Neem Tree can be found
online at
www.neemamerica.org.
Always
consult with your physician. |
