Medicinal value of Azadirachta indica: A review

Abstract

Binita Oli and Deepak Gautam*

Nature has been a great source of therapeutic compounds. The use of plants and plant-derived products as medicine has been a popular tradition as the beginning of human civilization. Plants are considered as the richest source of traditional and modern medications as well as food supplements, pharmaceutical intermediates and chemical entities for synthetic drugs. Among them, Azadirachta indica is one of the most versatile, multitudinous tree having immense potentials. Since Vedic times, it has been known as the multi-directional therapeutic uses in India. It is economically cheaper and safe and its different parts such as leaves, flowers, bark, fruits, gum, seeds, oil possesses great medicinal properties. The aim of this review is to assemble all the information regarding the distribution, botanical description, commercial and medicinal values of Azadirachta indica. This paper is fully based on secondary data. Information was gathered from about 28 published articles from various online portals and these gathered information is analyzed and presented well here in this paper. Azadirachta indica is commonly known as ‘Neem’ which is regarded beneficial to humans and animals. Different parts of neem has been used for treating various diseases such as cancer, Dental diseases, stress, ulcers, heart diseases, malaria, skin diseases, viral diseases, AIDS, oral diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, etc. Chemically diverse and structurally complex phytochemical constituents such as azadirachtin, nimbolinin, nimbidin, gedunin, nimbidol, Quercedin, gallic acid, glycoside, amino-acid, ascorbic acid, salannin and many others are found in Azadirachta indica which show anti-diabetic, anti-viral, anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-parasitic, anti-malarial, anti-cancer, anti-ulcer, hepatoprotective and gastro-protective activities. Thus, more attention must be given for the production of this plant.