MANAGE THE INSECT PESTS POPULATION BY NEEM AND NEEM BASED PRODUCTS

Neem (Azadiracta indica) is an attractive evergreen versatile tree having many good and useful qualities. This genus Azadiracta indica was described by A. Juss in 1830. Neem is an indigenous tree of India from where it has spread to many Asian and African countries, and is well recognized for its ability to grow even under sub-optimum environmental and edaphic conditions.

Neem tree is luxuriant, evergreen with medicinal and pesticidal properties. This has made it a very popular plant with considerable international interest. The earlier authentic record of its medicinal use is available in Arthshastra of Kautilya in 4th century B.C. Various parts of the tree have been held in esteem by Indian folks because of its medicinal and insecticidal properties in last few years. Neem has attracted global attention due to strong and safe insecticidal properties. Intensive search during the past decades has led to identification of neem as one of the most potential alternatives to toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The neem products are most effective, biodegradable, relatively less toxic and easily available.

Neem has emerged as a strong alternative to synthetic insecticides and also as the most important component of IPM programme. Neem has diverse biological effects on insects. No synthetic chemical or plant origin material is known to occur which has such a diverse biological effects on insects as neem. In India, it is called as limba, limo, nimb, nim, nimba, vepa etc.

In general, neem plants are being propagated by using seed as it can be easily collected and sown. The leaves of the tree are medium green, unpaired pinnate. The flowers appear in the month of March-April in India and they are small and fragrant. The fruits are 1.5 to 1.9 cm long and green in the beginning. But when ripe, they become yellowish with yellow sweet pulp and a brown seed kernel enclosed in a white yield about 6 kg oil and 24 kg neem cake which serve as a good fertilizer. 

Seeds are the main source of active ingredient of neem. The taste of neem is bitter and the bitterness is due to the presence of an array of complex components called terpenoids or more specifically limnoids. At present, the ten terpenoids that have been isolated and identified in neem seeds are salamin, salannol, salannol acetate, 3-diacetyle salannin, 14-epoxiazaridion, gedunin, nembenen, deacetylinimbenin, asadiradion, and azadirachtin. Of all these compounds the azadirachtin is the most active compound and is most widely employed in research work.

Extracted from AgriGold SwarnaSedyam