Nimba

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Neem

What the texts say Nimba does

• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Kandughna — relieves itching
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Jvarahara — used in fever
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)

What the evidence says. Not established for any internal health purpose, and the safety signal is far stronger than any benefit signal.

Side effects and limits

• Vomiting, often within minutes of ingestion
• Drowsiness progressing to altered consciousness
• Rapid breathing
• Diarrhoea

Avoid or ask first: Never give neem oil by mouth to an infant or young child.; Do not take neem oil internally at any age.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Neem oil is NOT interchangeable with these and is the form implicated in paediatric poisoning. Never give the oil to an infant.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, Part I

Melia azedarach — the bakain — is substituted for Azadirachta indica and is more toxic. The TLC separates them.

These are the pharmacopoeial limits for the article, not a test Laisha has run on anything. They are here so a practitioner can ask a supplier for a certificate of analysis and know what the numbers on it should say.

Tikta predominant. It is the dravya most often given as the example of tikta rasa itself.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Arishta means that which keeps off harm. Pichumarda names a use. The paryaya carry the reputation, not the pharmacology.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Melia azedarach, the bakain or Persian lilac, is a different tree that looks similar, grows alongside neem and is repeatedly sold as it. That substitution matters more than most: Melia azedarach is documented as toxic. Leaf shape distinguishes them on the tree and nothing distinguishes them in a powder.

Matched to the accepted name in the GBIF backbone at 99% confidence. The author abbreviation A.Juss. is Adrien-Henri de Jussieu, who described the species.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Azadirachta is from Persian azad-dirakht, the free or noble tree. Indica, of India. The Persian name is inside the Latin.

Neem has a long place in Ayurveda as nimba, and the leaf, bark and oil have each been used differently. Neem twigs are widely used for cleaning teeth, and the oil is applied externally in traditional practice. That is what the tradition holds; it is not a finding about what the plant does in a body, and tradition is not a safety record — the oral toxicity in children described above occurred within traditional use.

• No dose is given, here or anywhere in this library — and for neem oil taken internally there is no safe amount to discuss.
• Nothing here is a recommendation to use neem internally.
• Where a plant's harm is better documented than its benefit, this library says so rather than balancing the two to look even-handed.