Aloha,
I know an 'elder' woman from India who tells me that neem is somewhat of an
all-purpose antibiotic/disinfectant/etc. there (among other things) - simplest
recipe she mentioned was to simmer leaves in water for 10+ minutes. Don't
know if this solution would repel bugs from plants or not or is simply for a
topical antibiotic...I've used a neem-based bug juice that was quite
effective at keeping New England mosquitoes and blackflies at bay; much
better than a citronella-based one I tried.
One could process home-grown neem to extract the oil for various uses,
using similar methods to those used for extracting other plant oils, I would
guess. I will be planting some on my land in Hawai'i this winter...maybe
in a couple years I will have more info! ;-)
John Schinnerer ---------------------------------------------- Cultural & Ecological Designing Human Habitat Design john@eco-living.net http://eco-living.net |