Surgeon Senjee Pulney Andy's trials in treating smallpox using leaves of Azadirachta indica in southern India in the 1860s

摘要

Indian people hold Azadirachta indica (Rutales: Meliaceae) (nimba, Sanskrit), a native tree, in high veneration. Its cultural connections with the people of the Indian subcontinent are complex and intense. References to its use exist in Caraka, Susruta and Brihat Samhita-s -the ancient Sanskrit medical treatises. Today we know of 300 different chemical substances from A. indica (O. Koul, pers. commun.), a majority of which are limonoids in seeds. Several research articles referring to the relevance of these limonoids to humans exist. Azadir-chtin, a tetranortriterpenoid, is an environmentally friendly active principle used as a 'pesticide' to manage pestiferous arthropods and pathogenic fungi, thanks to a casual observation of Heinrich Schmuterer onSchistocerca gregaria (Insecta: Orthoptera: Acrididae), while working on the locust plague in northern Africa in 1959. A comprehensive summary of diverse medicinal capabilities of A. indica is available in Biswas et al. Several commercially available cosmetic products based on A. indica compounds (e.g. Margo bath soap (note 1)) are well known8. People of the Indian subcontinent consider A. indica a 'divine' tree that protects them from illnesses such as smallpox, chicken pox, measles, mumps, and even herpes, which we know today are caused by viruses (Figure 1).