Melia azedarach L.

Scientific Name: Melia azedarach L.

Family: Meliaceace

Common Name: China berry, Persian lilac

Hindi Name: बकैन

Description: Tree, small or medium-sized; young parts scurfy-tomentose, glabrous when mature. Leaves 2-pinnate, rarely 3-pinnate, 30 - 90 cm long; pinnae 5 - 9, usually opposite; leaflets 3 - 7 on each pinna, opposite or subopposite, lanceolate, oblanceolate, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-Lanceolate, oblique at base, toothed or lobed along margins, acuminate at apex, 2.5 - 5 x 1 - 2.5 cm; secondary nerves 8 - 15 on each side; petiolules to 5 mm long. Panicles lax. Pedicels slender, to 7 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed to base, pubescent outside. Petals 5, linear-oblong or oblanceolate, deflexed, ca 7 mm long, pubescent outside when young. Staminal tube 0.5 - 1 cm long, cylindric, 20 - 30-toothed, purple; anthers at mouth of tube, apiculate. Ovary glabrous; style clavate at apex; stigma 10-lobed. Drupes ellipsoid or globose, fleshy, yellow when ripe.

Economic Importance: 

• Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of leaves and seed reportedly control many insect, mite and nematode pests.

Medicinal Importance:  

• M. azedarach was one of the primary plants used for medicinal purposes, including 18 skin conditions such as acne, burns, carbuncles, abscesses, measles, pediculosis, cellulitis, and prickly heat.

Religious Importance: 

• The tough five-grooved seeds were widely used for making rosaries and other products requiring beads