Neem Fruit Uses & Recipes

Dried neem or margosa fruit (or drupes) should be soaked in water overnight to reconstitute.

Fresh Neem fruit (or drupes) look similar to olives. They have a thin outer skin, a yellow, sweet-ish flesh and a single embedded seed. Neem oil is extracted from the fruit kernel. The fruits are eaten fresh or cooked, or prepared as a dessert or lemonade-type drink. They are often eaten as a pre-meal appetizer. The fruit is bittersweet and traditionally used to help treat haemorrhoids, intestinal worms, urinary tract disorders, bloody nose, phlegm, eye disorders, diabetes, wounds, (and leprosy!).

A traditional agricultural practice involves the production of neem tea. The seeds are dried, crushed and soaked in water overnight to produce a liquid pesticide that can be applied directly to crops. Crushed seed kernels are also used as a dry pesticide application, especially to control stem borers on young plants (see pfaf.org).