India is playing a crucial role in development of neem
as pesticide in agriculture and pest control industry.
Neem in India is used for many purposes
Veterinary medicine
Unani medicine
Cosmetics
Malaria control
- public health
CROP PROTECTION AGENT
Nitrogen efficiency
Agro-forestry
Silviculture
Ayurvedic medicine
Ancient medicine
Agriculture
Modren medicine
Antifertility and other medical application
General Characteristics
Sapwood is grayish-white and the heartwood is red-turning to reddish-brown or exposure.
The wood is dull to lustrous, odoriferous without any characteristic taste. It is hard,
moderately heavy, uneven and narrowly interlocked-grained, medium to coarse-textured and
beautifully mottled. It has a fine ribbon-like figure when sawed radially. It is not subjected to
much shrinkage and is medium refractory. Neem wood seasons well in open stacks placed
under cover. It is durable even in open situation and is not attacked by insects. The wood is
like mahogany and the working quality is almost like that of teak, but takes poor polish. The
mechanical properties of neem wood are given in Table.
Properties of neem wood
1. Wet Weight/m3 705-945 kg
2. Resistance shearing along the fibre (parallel to grain) 93.22 kg/cm
(1326 lbs/in2)
3. Crushing Stress 0.4695 tons/cm2
4. Coefficient of transverse strength 0.7943 tons/cm2
(5.125 tons/in2)
5. Coefficient of elasticity 76.720 tons/cm2
(495 tons/in2)
6. Weight at 12% moisture content 706.7 kg/m3
(44.01 lb/ft3)
7. Compression parallel to grain 469.62 kg/cm3
(6680 lbs/in3)
8. Transverse strain 807.078 kg/cm2
(11.480 lbs/in2)
9. Modulus elasticity 1.008,800
10. Specific gravity 0.56-0.85
11. Mean specific gravity 0.68
Wood Structure
angular in cross sectional view (Fig. 3B).
Vessels are in solitary or radial multiples or
in clusters. Intervessel angular in cross
sectional view. Vessels are in solitary or
radial multiples or in clusters. Intervessel
pits are bordered alternate with slit-like
apertures. Pit diameter ranges from 4.5 to
7.5 um. Perforation plate is simple and
transverse or oblique to very oblique. Rarely
lateral perforations are also present. simple
and transverse or oblique to very oblique.
Rarely lateral perforations are also present.
Vessel member dimensions in the wood of neem in two samples from the same locality
Character Sample1 Sample2
Vessel member length (um) 70-400 40-500
Vessel member diameter (um) 11-143 20-248
Mean vessel member length (um) 238 (SD=7.62) 330 (SD=7.8)
Mean vessel member length (um) 67 (SD=3.8) 134 (SD=7.73)
Vessel frequency/mm2 19.0 19.34
Vulnerability 3.51 9.15
Mesomorphy 834 3020
Mean vessel wall thickness (um) 1.4 (SD=0.39) 0.38 (SD=0.5)
The vessel walls have spiral thickenings on their inner surfaces. The narrow vessels show
prominent thickenings. The thickenings are discontinuous helices and generally taper into
the wall near the inner pit aperture. They may border the pit aperture in certain cases. The
angle of inclination of helices from the longitudinal axis of the vessel is 20-25. There is a
strong negative correlation between the vessel member length and vessel diameter.
Axial parenchyma is paratracheal banded, marginal 3-7 seriate, or paratracheal vasicentric
or apotracheal diffuse. Crystals are common in the axial parenchyma cells. Rays are
uniseriate to multiseriate, heterogenous (Kribs type3) or homogenous (kribs type2). They are
heterocellular with procumbent and one row of erect marginal cell. Pits in the ray cell walls
are oval to elliptical with broad borders. Crystals are absent in the ray cells. Fibres are
non-libriform to semi-libriform, fine, non-septate are variable in length. They are seen in
radial rows. The inter-fibre pits are sparse, minute and confined to radial walls. The wood
characteristics in neem are given in Table.
Wood characteristics of neem
Character in um
Length of fibre 240-1620
Diameter of fibre 12.5-28
Wall thickness of fibre 3-6
Diameter of largest-ray cell 68-78
Diameter of axial parenchyma cell 20-30
Mean height of ray 29.54 (S.D.=2.58)
Mean width of ray 4.69 (S.D.=0.23)
Frequency of ray/mm2 5-10
Long diameter of Intervessel pits 5-7
Long diameter of vessel-parenchyma pits 3-5