[Stoves] Biochar Projects for Science Students

Crispin Pemberton-Pigott crispinpigott at gmail.com
Sun Nov 28 08:18:59 CST 2010


Dear Jeff

>I tried Neem oil and did not find it to be of any help. 

The use and effectiveness of neem is well proven which is why W R Grace buys
pretty much the entire crop of neem seeds from Niger and exports them to
make insecticide. They then sell the product back to Niger where it is mixed
with water under a neem tree to make insecticide. Bizarre when you think
about it.

>You might want to check into locust trees. 

The veriety og neem that grows well in the Highveld is not the right
sub-species and has no adezeractin. In fact they don't call it a neem though
it is.

In Kenya neem oil and seeds are used to treat 40 different diseases
including malaria so it is called 'the tree of 40 diseases'.  I know someone
from Sri Lanka who lives in Yamoussoukro who has never taken any
anti-malarial medicines. He drinks some neem oil each week and has never
contracted malaria - well over 20 years.

Neem contains an insect hormone mimic for skin splitting. In exoskeleton
insects it prevents them shedding their skin to grow and they die from the
insect equivalent of a heart attack.

People in Kenya who fail to be cured by hospital medicine go to traditional
healers to get cured (and they do) by a neem-based medicine. As far as I
know it does not contain wormwood which is the latest craze. Neem somehow
interferes with the malaria parasite reproduction.

A lot of the firewood available in Niger on the remote areas is neem - all
planted. It gets huge in what looks like pure sand.

Regards
Crispin






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