c
Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of Neem.


 



 S B Mirza


  Sadia Ali





Neem, the versatile medicinal plant is the unique source of various types of compounds having diverse
chemical structure. Very little work has been done on the bio-logical activity and plausible medicinal
applications of these compounds and hence extensive investigation is needed to exploit their
therapeutic utility to combat diseases. Although crude extracts from vari-ous parts of neem have
medicinal applications from time immemorial, modern drugs can be developed after extensive
investigation of its bioactivity, mechanism of action, pharmacotherapeutics, toxicity and after proper
standardization and clinical trials.





MEDICINAL plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases, from the dawn of
civilization. Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is perhaps the most useful traditional medicinal plant in
many places in world including Pakistan and well known. for more than 2000 years as one of the most
versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological activity. Each part of the neem tree has
some medicinal property and is thus commercially exploitable. During the last five decades, apart from
the chemistry of the neem com-pounds, considerable progress has been achieved regarding the
biological activity and medicinal appli-cations of neem.

 



iY Neem has been extensively used in ayur-veda, unani and homoeopathic medicine and has
become a cynosure of modern medicine.
iY Every part of the tree has been used as traditional medicine for house-hold remedy against
various human ailments, from antiquity
iY Compounds isolate from Neem are usefull but harmfull and toxic for some animals
iY Compounds isolated from Neem are in different parts,seed pulp,oil,bark etc
iY Compounds of Neem have effect dependent on the way of uptake,intravenously taken,oral
onsumption etc
iY che aim of this study is to provide you some of the knowledge about the cherapeutic effect like
its antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of Neem.

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che neem tree has been described as A. indica as early as 1830 by De Jussieu. che importance of the
neem tree has been recognized by the US National Academy of Sciences, which published a report in
1992 entitled ͚Neem ʹ a tree for solving global problems͛ Since the early report by Siddiqui in 1942 on
the isolation of nimbin, the first bitter compound isolated from neem oil, more than 135 compounds
have been isolated from different parts of neem and several reviews have also been published on
thechemistry and structural diversity of these compounds.

Oil from the leaves, seeds and bark possesses a wide spectrum of antibacterial action against Gram-
negative and Gram-positive micro-organisms, including M. tuberculosis and streptomycin-resistant
strains(Chopra,et al)

In vitro, it inhibits Vibrio cholerae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, M. tuberculosis and M. pyo-

genes(Satyavati,et al) Antimicrobial effects of neem extract have been demonstrated against
Streptococcus mutans and S. fae-calis(Almas,et al),NIM-76, a new vaginal contraceptive from neem oil
showed inhibitory effect on the growth of various pathogens, including bacteria, fungi and
virus(SaiRam,et al)Recently, the antibacterial activity of neem seed oil was assessed in vitro against 14
strains of pathogenic bacteria(Baswa,et al),Nimbolide also shows antibacterial acti-vity against S. aureus
and S. coagulase (Rojanapo et al).a deoxy-gedunin isolated from seed oil, has been shown to possess
moderate antibacterial action against some strains of human pathogenic bacteria(Devakumar et al).

che antioxidant activity of neem seed extract has been demonstrated in vivo during horse-grain
germination, which is associated with low levels of lipooxygenase activity and lipid peroxides(Rao,et
al)An antioxidant principle has also been isolated, which is a potent inhibitor of plant lipooxygenases.

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77ʹ110.
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1985, 11, 177ʹ188.
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R. P., Planta Med., 1991, 57,65ʹ68.
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5.Y Almas, K., Indian J. Dent. Res., 1999, 10, 23ʹ26.
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