The Neem (Azadirachta Indica) is a holy tree with a lot of skills. It comes from the East Indies and more precisely from the South of the Himalayas.
A text of traditional medicine (Brihat Samhita de Varahamihira) even recommends planting a Neem tree near each house. The Hindu holy texts are about the sarve roga nirvarini which means: “the one who cures every disease”. In popular speech, the Neem is called: “the village’s pharmacy”!
The international network of the Neem was set in 1194. It centres its activities on exploring and evaluating the genetic diversity of the Neem. Some national institutes in 23 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe take part in the network activities. The general coordination is secured by the Department of the Forests, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). The technical medium that is to say the engineers and the laboratories, is secured by the Danida Centre of the Forest Seeds (DFSC), now incorporated to the Forest and Landscape Denmark (Danish Centre independent of the Copenhagen University (UC) for the forest, landscapes and the planning).
In Brazil, all the fruit and vegetable producers but also all the distributors of farm products know the neem. Since 2001, we use it frequently to cure the animals and for the agriculture.
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The azadirachtin extract contained in the neem’seeds was very efficient against the larva that were destroying the foliages, against 13 species of lepidopterous insects and against sawflies.
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When the tree reaches maturity, it can produce until 50Kg of fruits what is equivalent to 30Kg of seeds. These ones constitute the main source of components with some insecticidal properties as the azadirachtin. However, the quantity of azadirachtin contained in the seeds considerably changes according to the climatic conditions, the soil conditions and the genotype of the tree (Ermel 1986 ; Singh 1986).
