''Azadirachta'' is a genus of two species of trees in the mahogany family

Meliaceae Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs (and a few herbaceous plants, mangroves) in the order Sapindales. They are characterised by alternate, usually pinnate leaves without stipules, and by syncarp ...

. Numerous species have been proposed for the genus but only two are currently recognized, '' Azadirachta excelsa'' and the economically important tree '' Azadirachta indica'', the neem tree, from which

neem oil Neem oil, also known as margosa oil, is a vegetable oil pressed from the fruits and seeds of the neem (''Azadirachta indica''), a tree which is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and has been introduced to many other areas in the tropics. It ...

is extracted. Both species are native to the Indomalaysian region, and ''A. indica'' is also widely cultivated and naturalized outside its native range. Medicinal properties have been attributed to the resin derived from the trees in the

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treatin ...

of India. One of the components of this resin has been found to be an effective

insecticide Insecticides are pesticides used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. The major use of insecticides is in agriculture, but they are also used in home and garden settings, i ...

; see azadirachtin. Another component is an effective anti-fungal; see '' Azadirachta indica''. These species should not be confused with ''

Melia azedarach ''Melia azedarach'', commonly known as the chinaberry tree, pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac, syringa berrytree, Persian lilac, Indian lilac, or white cedar, is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family (biology), family, Meliace ...

'', which is a tree in a different genus of the family Meliaceae.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Azadirachta'' was established by Adrien-Henri de Jussieu in 1830. In 1753,

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

had described two species, ''

'' and ''Melia azadirachta''. De Jussieu considered ''Melia azadirachta'' to be sufficiently different from ''Melia azedarach'' to be placed in a new genus, ''Azadirachta'', as ''Azadirachta indica''.p. 221
/ref> For both his species, Linnaeus referred to the name 'azedarach', which is derived from the French 'azédarac', which in turn is from the Persian 'āzād dirakht' (ازادرخت), meaning 'free or noble tree'.

Species

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepted two species: *'' Azadirachta excelsa'' (Jack) Jacobs *'' Azadirachta indica'' A.Juss.

References

* Mabberley, D. J. et al. 1995. ''Azadirachta'', pp. 337–343. In: ''Flora Malesiana'' ser. 1 Spermatophyta 12(1): 1–407. * Meliaceae genera {{Meliaceae-stub