Abstract:
Since ancient era, herbal therapy remained as medicine’s
backbone which is economic, safer and easily available to most of people in
world. Among diverse herbal treasure, Azadirachta indica (Neem) is a
highly esteemed tree with several beneficial properties and applications especially
known for its incredible therapeutic and ethnomedicinal values for humankind.
Neem is regarded as “free tree
of India”, “wonder
tree”, “Nature’s
drug store”, Village dispensary”,
“Divine tree”, “heal
all”, “Materia
medica” and “Panacea
of all Diseases”. It is among
highly exploited medicinal plant of Indian origin. It has been used in different
medicinal systems: ayurveda, unani, homoeopathic medicine, therefore, considered
as cynosure of modern medicine. All parts of the plant have some biological
and medicinal properties hence valuable source of natural medicinal products.
Compounds isolated from neem are broadly classified into two: (1) Isoprenoids
(2) Non-isoprenoids. Isoprenoid compounds consists of diterpenoids, triterpenoids
and steroids while while non-isoprenoids contains proteins and/or amino acids,
polysaccharides, flavonoids etc. It is found beneficial in leprosy, gastro-intestinal
problems, malaria, intestinal helminthiasis, tuberculosis, ringworms, skin disorders,
boils, epilepsy, fever, respiratory distress, nausea, ulcers and in many other
health related problems. This review gives a bird’s
eye view particularly on history, classification, active principles, mechanism
of action and potential uses of neem in safeguarding human and animal health
along with the several commercial preparations available in the market.
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