Mosquito Repellent Trees - Neem Tree and other Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 294-365

Neem is the “village pharmacy.” Every part of the plant has bioactive compounds that can be used in medicine and agriculture. It is a fast growing tree that can provide  shelter, food, medicine, and crop protection. We are just beginning to learn of the benefits that this tree offers.

Names

Botanists know it as Azadirachta indica, the generic name coming from Persian words meaning “free” or “noble tree” and the species name being Latin for “Indian”.

Description

The neem tree is one of the most versatile of India’s plants. Valued for centuries throughout tropical Asia for its multitude of medicinal and other uses.

The umbrella-shaped neem, a member of the mahogany family (Meliaceae), grows to about 50 feet tall. It is generally evergreen, though in some areas it may be briefly deciduous. Its foot-long leaves are divided into 8 to 18 toothed leaflets which measure 1 to 4 inches long by 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches wide. Fragrant white flowers about 1/2 inch broad in branching groups crowd in the leaf axils. The thin-fleshed, egg-shaped yellow fruits measure about 3/4 inch long and contain a single seed.

Distribution

 It is planted as a street tree in Haiti and is also cultivated in Guatemala, Cuba, and Nicaragua. It grows in Hawaii and Florida but rarely flowers in the latter state. 

Uses

The young, tender branches have been widely used in India and other countries as “chewing sticks” to keep the teeth and gums clean and healthy. 

Commercial toothpastes containing neem extracts are now available in India, Europe, and the United States. Limited clinical trials have shown neem toothpaste to be a potential treatment for gingivitis. 

Neem branches are also placed in stored grain to repel insects.

The bitter leaves and flowers are eaten as a potherb, and the fruit is also edible.

Organic farmers use it in bio-pesticides, as it is naturally-derived and potent. Aphids, mealy bugs, mites, thrips, cabbage worms and any number of insects.

Neem flowers are generally used in cooking to improve digestive health. This also used to treat excessive phlegm and intestinal worms. Some preparations dried flowers been powdered and used. Generally the dried flowers are roasted in ghee and used in the dishes.

The flowering season of the Neem tree falls on Jan to May (Spring season), but only once in a year. During that time one can pick the flowers and dry them in sun 

Medicinal Uses

 In Indian folk medicine, the leaves are prescribed for many ailments,

•  including intestinal parasites, 
• swollen glands, 
• bruises, 
• sprains, and 
• malaria. 
• Leaf extracts have been shown to have antiviral activity 
• and delay blood clotting (confirming their efficacy as traditional snakebite treatments), and 
• the leaf essential oil has strong antibacterial and 
• antifungal ­activity. Research on neem’s potential against malaria is now under way in Africa.
• The fruit has been used to treat urinary disorders and 
• hemorrhoids
•  Like the leaf oil, the seed oil has been shown to be antifungal and antiseptic, and it may also be contraceptive. 
• An attractive characteristic of neem insecticides is their very low toxicity to humans, plants, and other animals including certain beneficial insects. 
• Neem has a curative effect on chronic skin conditions that have not been successfully helped through conventional medical treatments. 
• Acne, 
• dry skin,
•  dandruff, 
• psoriasis, 
• eczema,
•  herpes, 
• shingles, 
• andringworm have all been shown to respond to natural creams salves or lotions made with neem.
• Cancer. Remember that many of the conventional anticancer drugs are derived from plants. The benefits of neem have been extensively and scientifically studied. The components extracted from the seeds, leaves, flowers and fruits of the neem tree have been used in traditional medicine for the cure of multiple diseases including cancer for centuries. These extracts show chemo preventive and anti-tumor effects in different types of cancer. Two bioactive components in neem, azadirachtin and nimbolide, have been studied extensively.

History

Neem’s Sanskrit name “Nimba” is a derivative of the phrase “Nimbati svasthyamdadati“, which means “to give good health”. Its medicinal use dates back to the Vedic periods in India, around 4,000 BCE. 

Through various traditions in various regions, it became useful for treating a great many ailments, such as leprosy, heat rash, wounds, ulcers and chicken pox. It was used widely and diversely in agriculture. 

It is still prescribed in the ancient practices of Ayurvedic and Unani medicine, systems of medicine which are still practiced and taught today.

Receipt for  alternative to bug spray.

You can give it a try at home, for an environmentally sound alternative to bug spray.

Ingredients

• 3 large handfuls of neem leaves
• 1 kilo of pure shea butter
• 1 bar of soap
• 1 litre of water

Recipe

Boil the neem leaves in the water until the water turns green. Strain out the leaves. Grate the soap into fine pieces and add to the hot liquid, stirring until dissolved. Add in the shea butter a little at a time, and stir until incorporated. Let cool, and store in an airtight container.

This is a great product to use to protect the children from malaria.

Neem as an Insecticide

Neem is classified as an “anti-feedant”, which means that pest insects refuse to eat anything covered with it. This effectively reduces populations that infest your garden; your crops are these insects primary food of choice.

Neem also works by disrupting insects’ hormone balance, instead of being a simple poison that kills them through toxicity. The soft-bodied insects it is most effective against (such as whitefly and aphids), come into contact with neem and the chemical impulses which tell them to eat, mate, fly or molt are not received. 

This disrupts their population to the extent that it quickly fails. The fact that it does no harm to predatory insects leaves pests more susceptible to predation. The fact that it is non-toxic and safe for application means that it can be used as needed without worrying about residual toxic effects, like most pesticides.

Reforestation with Neem Tree

Propagation:

The most common propagation method is to grow neem trees from seed.

There have been trials using cuttings, suckers, roots and tissue culture, and it all works, but planting seed is by far the easiest and the most common method.

As long as the seed is fresh it germinates readily in about a week.

I have never tried to raise seeds in pots, I just put them straight into the ground and they do fine anywhere. However, I see no problem with raising them in pots. Any standard mix, supplemented with a balanced fertilizer, should do.

Neem trees develop a very deep and strong tap root. 

Leaving them in pots or polythene bags for too long will lead to stunted and distorted roots, and it is also very easy to damage roots when the tree is planted out. So if you start them in pots, get them out in the garden as soon as they are big enough.

Growth And Life Span

Neem trees grow slowly during their first year, but they reach maturity fast. You can expect to harvest your first neem fruit after three to five years. It takes about ten years for a neem tree to get to full production. After that it will produce 30 to 50 kg of fruit a year. A neem tree can be expected to live 150 to 200 years.

Sunlight: The more, the better. Especially young neem trees cannot handle shade.

Soil you can grow neem trees in just about any soil.

Medicinal Trees Balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) effective in bronchitis, antirheumatic expectorant

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 183-365

These hardy, straight-trunked trees have large, sticky, fragrant buds. On the coast, black cottonwoods can reach 50 metres tall, but balsam poplars usually reach only 25 metres.

Medicinal and Other Uses
 
The Cree called balsam poplar Metoos and shredded the bark, obtaining a liquid extract used for coughs. 

The Blackfoot called it As-si-tsix-in. They used the inner bark in smoking mixtures and as emergency horse food. The Blackfoot used to take the sap and rub it over their body when stalking horses to disguise the human scent. It has been reported that some Indians used the resinous bud to cure snow-blindness. It didn´t always work and the application was extremely painful. 
 
The bark is a cathartic, tonic, stimulant, diuretic, alterative and expectorant. The buds have the same properties in addition to acting as a nephritic, demul-cent, emollient, vulnerary, counterirritant, antirheumatic and nutritive.
 
It is very soothing and healing to dry and inflamed parts, both internally and externally. As a soothing expectorant, Balm of Gilead is very effective in bronchitis.


For a dry cough or sore throat, take ½ teaspoon of the oil or ointment, mix with honey and lemon juice, and drink it. The oleo-resin can be used internally or externally, but only small amounts should be used internally. Externally, it is soothing to any skin irritation, cuts, bruises, rashes and pimples.


Made into a compounded ointment or oil, it is extremely good for any skin disease. Balm of Gilead is also effective in cleansing the blood and eliminating the cause of scurvy. 

Growing across the northern reaches of North America, balsam poplar bears buds coated with a gooey, fragrant substance. In the drug industry, it’s called “balm-of-Gilead,” and as an expectorant, it becomes a constituent of cold medicine. It also keeps ointment from going rancid. Applied externally, it helps heal wounds.
 
First Nations people used the resin from buds to treat sore throats, coughs, lung pain and rheumatism. An ointment, called balm of Gilead, was made from the winter buds of balsam poplar to relieve congestion.

The buds contain a waxy resin with anti-infectant properties still used in many modern natural health ointments. Bees collect it and use it to seal off intruders, such as mice, which might decay and infect the hive.
The short, fine fibres are used in tissues and other paper products.

Notes

It is named cottonwood for the white hairs on mature seed which float through the air like wisps of cotton or snow.

Habitat
 
Poplars require ample moisture and plenty of nutrients to grow well. They favour floodplains and moist upland sites with lots of light. They do not grow well in the shade of other species.

Sacred Trees - Banyan Trees- Wish Fulfilling Tree - Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 146-365

This is a  Banyan tree. The interesting thing about these trees is that the roots acutally grow down from the branches. Once they hit the ground, they grow into trunks.

As these roots grow down from the branches and the tree expands, the new roots become known as “accessory trunks”. In Miami, where there are often hurricanes, the banyan trees are the only trees that don’t blow over in the strong winds.  The many roots and accessory trunks make them strong and able to withstand even Category 4 hurricanes.


Native to India many Banyan tree seedlings were imported to south Florida in the late 1800's. These trees can grow up to 100 feet in height (30.5 meters) and live approximately 1,000 years.

A Banyan (also Banian) is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte (a plant growing on another plant) when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree (or on structures like buildings and bridges). "Banyan" often refers specifically to the Indian banyan or Ficus benghalensis, which is the national tree of the Republic of India, though the term has been generalized to include all figs that share a characteristic life cycle, and systematically to refer to the subgenus Urostigma.


Banyan tree is a  member of the ficus family.

The prop roots form columns over time, indistinguishable from the main trunk. The main trunk can even die leaving behind the columns which keep growing outward.

Should a “tree” be thought of only as a single organism? Especially in the tropics, trees can literally constitute an entire city as they support a network of other plants and animals. When trees provide favorable conditions for life by other species, they are considered “keystone” species. Yet trees are often dependent on other species. Many trees could not live without other cooperative species with which they have relations, usually mutually advantageous ones. 
 
Nature is full of evolutionary co-dependencies in which particular tree species requires one particular pollinator to reproduce (for example, Ficus species). Many trees are dependent on animals for seed dispersal. Oaks and pines are known to be particularly dependent on mycorrhizae, a soil-borne fungi that significantly increases the absorptive area and efficiency of a tree's roots. 

A single fungal mycelium may extend for acres and also may interact with many plants of different species. Are these linked organisms a tree or many trees? Species evolution can certainly be described as a strange mix of collaborations as well as competitions! 

Etymology

 

The name was originally given to F. benghalensis and comes from India where early travellers observed that the shade of the tree was frequented by banias or Indian traders.
In the Gujarati language, banya means "grocer/merchant," not "tree."

Religion and mythology

It is sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus. Krishna is said to have achieved enlightenment under one, and Shiva, in his role of Universal teacher, Dakshinamurti, sat under a bohar tree to enlighten the sages who had come to hear his teachings. 

It is India’s national symbol, symbolizing India’s unity through diversity (as the tree has several trunks and many aerial roots).

 

In Hinduism, the leaf of the Banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the god Krishna. In the Bhagavat Gita Krishna said "There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas." 

The Banyan tree is also a symbol of spiritual knowledge. In the Pralaya it is written that only Krishna survived the great Cosmic Flood, and he is depicted sucking his toe, while floating over the flood waters on a banyan leaf in many Indian Tajore paintings.

 

 In Hindu mythology it is known as the ‘wish fulfilling tree’. Its ever expanding branches represent eternal life

Here the material world is described as a tree whose roots are upwards and branches are below.

We have experience of a tree whose roots are upward: if one stands on the bank of a river or any reservoir of water, he can see that the trees reflected in the water are upside down.

The branches go downward and the roots upward. Similarly, this material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. The material world is but a shadow of reality. In the shadow there is no reality or substantiality, but from the shadow we can understand that there is substance and reality.

In many stories of Philippine Mythology, the banyan, (locally known as balete or balite) is said to be home to a variety of spirits (diwata and engkanto) and demon-like creatures (among the Visayans, specifically, the dili ingon nato, meaning "those not like us"). Maligno (Evil spirits, from Spanish for 'malign') associated with it include the kapre (a giant), duwende (dwarves), and the tikbalang (a creature whose top half is a horse and whose bottom half is human).

 Medicinal Uses

The banyan is sacred to the Hindus, and plays a great part in their ceremonies. The leaves are made into plates. 

 

The wood yields an inferior rubber and is used in medicine to 

• be applied externally to relieve pain, 
• bruises and 
• rheumatism. 

An infusion of the bark is regarded as a powerful tonic and poultice. 

 

• The health benefits and the therapeutic uses of the banyan tree include its effectiveness in curing dysentery and chronic diarrhea. In this treatment, the leaf buds of the banyan tree are soaked in water overnight and then consumed the next morning. In fact the medicinal benefits of the banyan tree are also found in its latex which is also used to treat dysentery and diarrhea.
• Health benefits of the banyan tree also result in the treatment of female sterility. In this treatment the roots of the banyan tree should be dried  and then ground to a fine powder  which should then be mixed with five times the quantity of milk and consumed for three nights consecutively after every menstruation cycle till the woman conceives
• The health benefits of the banyan tree also extend to teeth disorders. It has been observed that cleaning the teeth using the aerial roots of the banyan tree is known to help in preventing various teeth disorders. The astringent properties of the roots of the banyan tree tends to cleanse as well as strengthen the gums and the teeth.
• The latex obtained from the bark of the banyan tree is also known to be used locally as a natural treatment for lumbago and rheumatic pain. The latex is also used locally to treat skin disorders such as ulcers, bruises and sores.
• For diabetes, soak overnight, 1 sq. inch of the bark of the tree in a glass of water and drink the infusion the next morning.   
• For eczema, char the tender leaf-buds in hot ashes and dissolve the same in gingelly oil for application on the affected areas.
• For gum problems and pyorrhea, chew crushed prop roots, hold in mouth for a while and then rinse the  mouth with lukewarm water.
•   Boil 1-3 sq. inches of the bark of the tree in 2 cups of water for 5-10 minutes. Cool and use this decoction for gargling. Repeat several times a day. This helps relieve bad breath and oral ulcers.
•  For leucorrhea, boil 1-3 tablespoons of the powdered dry bark of the fig tree and the banyan tree in 1-2 litres of water till it is reduced to1/2 litre. Strain and when lukewarm, douche the vagina. Repeat several times a day.
• For pimples or acne, make a fine paste of the prop roots and apply on the affected parts. Repeat as needed.
•  To cure skin diseases and venereal diseases, boil 3-5 tablespoons of the bark in 4-5cups water till the volume is reduced to 1 cup. Add 1 teaspoon of honey and drink. Use 2 or 3 times a week.
• Apply the latex externally on the affected parts in cases of bruises, hemorrhoids, swellings, lumbago and rheumatism.
• For rashes, apply a paste of the leaves on the affected areas.

The fruit is eaten. The wood is of little value but is durable under water. 

Propagation

Widely distributed in India, the tree may be propagated by seeds and cuttings. The seeds should be sown as soon as they ripen, preferably in pots in fine leaf mould mixture with powdered charcoal. Large cuttings should be put down at the commencement of the monsoon.