An interview with Vicki Parsons, founder and CEO of Neem Tree Farms.
1) What is a Neem Tree? Neem (Azadirachta indica) is known as the “village
pharmacy” in its native India where it has been used for nearly 5000
years as a cornerstone of the Ayurvedic tradition. Neem was
“discovered” in the western world in 1959 when a German entomologist
noticed that the only green standing after a swarm of locusts swept
through the Sudan. Since then, literally hundreds of studies on everything
from insects to healthcare have since been completed in laboratories
and research stations around the world. Much of that research is online
at www.pubmed.com,
a website created by the National Institutes of Health. It’s also been
grouped with introductions for non-medical professionals at www.usingneem.com. 2) Tell us about your background and how your interest in Neem Trees originated? I’m
actually a journalist and marketing consultant who gardened and rescued
dogs as hobbies. I developed a horrible chemical sensitivity in the
early 1990s that made it impossible for me to risk exposure to anything
toxic, so neem offered an alternative that would let me continue to
garden and live with a house full of dogs. I
found a man who had successfully imported neem seeds and was selling
the plants in early 1992 and bought a dozen to try. I also bought a
copy of a book published by the National Academy Press called “Neem: A
Tree for Solving Global Problems.” My husband and I read it and decided
we needed to start growing neem commercially. We planted our first 500
neem trees in 1992, expecting to sell leaves, bark and oil to other
companies to be made into final products. We
soon discovered that we’re too far north to grow neem commercially but
by then we’d been bitten by the neem bug. About that time, the Internet
became a viable marketing opportunity and we created the nation’s first
comprehensive website on neem in 1996. 3) What do you believe are the most important attributes of the Neem Tree? There are dozens of attributes that make neem “a tree for
solving global problems,” but government regulations significantly
limit my ability to talk about them. The EPA has yet to approve a
natural neem pesticide, personal insect repellant or treatment for head
lice or scabies, although the raw material has been used for thousands
of years. The FDA says that that any herb labeled to treat or prevent a
disease must complete the same stringent tests that it requires for
prescription pharmaceuticals. One US company is
currently working with the EPA to label neem as a natural pesticide but
it’s not likely that any company will ever market a neem product
labeled to treat a disease. It’s a multi-million dollar process to
patent extracts from a tree that grows easily almost anywhere in the
tropics, so they would never be able to recover their investment. That
said, I can tell you that it’s an incredible immune system booster
because I’m not claiming to treat or prevent a disease. The science
goes beyond my limited medical knowledge quickly but the fact that neem
increases activity of the cell-mediated immune system is particularly
important to most people. Led by "Killer T" cells, the cell-mediated
immune system is the body\'s first defense against infection. Killer
T-cells are able to destroy microbes, viruses and cancer cells by
injecting toxic chemicals into the invaders. Neem also boosts the
body's macrophage response, which stimulates the lymphocytic system,
and boosts production of white blood cells. (See www.usingneem.com/immuno.pdf for an overview and abstracts on the individual reports.) Neem
is also packed with antioxidants that play a critical role in
preventing damage implicated in a wide range of chronic degenerative
diseases including atherosclerosis, diabetes, heart disease,
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The ORAC score for neem bark is nearly
500, compared to 15 for broccoli, 62 for blueberries and 95 for
cranberries. (See www.usingneem.com/antioxidant.pdf for more information.) When taken internally, neem leaf and bark also:
- Act as a blood purifier and tonic
- Help maintain healthy liver function
- Maintain an optimum balance between HDL and LDL cholesterol and promote a healthy cardiovascular system
- Aid in a healthy response to minor inflammation
- Improve joint health and mobility
- Stimulate proper bile flow to help maintain healthy digestion, assimilation and elimination.
- Promote respiratory and sinus relief, reduce inflammation of bronchial system and modulate sinus health
- Improve the appearance of skin and help prevent noncystic acne
- Promote healthy teeth and gums
- Support healthy blood sugar levels
4) Name some of the products that have been developed from neem trees. Literally thousands of neem products are available in the
international marketplace, although many products sold in the US are
not labeled for the same use as they may be in other countries. Most
people who have heard of neem know it as a non-toxic pesticide and
fungicide in gardens and organic farms. As more people recognize the
issues inherent in products like DEET, lindane and permethrin, we hope
neem becomes more widely used in those instances although there are
still many regulatory hurdles to be overcome From
my perspective, the best thing about using neem as a pesticide is that
we sell skincare products made with similar – or sometimes even
stronger – concentrations of neem. That means if I’m spraying a
vegetable garden with neem and the wind shifts and I end up with the
spray in my face, it’s no more dangerous than the cream I’ve already
used to minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Neem
products like lotion, cream and salve also offer truly amazing results
for people with problem skin, even chronic problems that may not
respond to modern medicine. One man in Oklahoma, for instance,
developed horrible itchy skin as a soldier in the Vietnam War that
multiple doctors over the past 25 years had been unable to cure. Our
Anti-Itch Formula cleared it up in less than a month. The soap and
lotion work wonders on noncystic acne, and we regularly hear from
parents who can sleep all night because they’ve started using neem
salve on their baby’s itchy patches of skin. One
of our most popular products is a neem bark toothpowder. It’s brown and
it isn’t sweet and it doesn’t fizz, but we sell a ton of it because it
really does whiten teeth and help keep gums healthy. We’re even working
with a large company based in Denver to develop a new line of oral care
products they expect to launch later this year with a series of
infomercials featuring a neem bark toothpowder. You
can take neem internally as a tea made with raw leaf or bark, but it’s
not particularly tasty so we sell capsules as well as a traditional
alcohol-based extract and teas flavored with cinnamon or peppermint. I
have to admit that the capsules far outsell any of the other products
though! 5) Discuss the report mentioned on your website about Neem trees and how they can solve global problems. We started growing neem based on the indirect advice of the
federal government’s National Research Council which published a book
called “Neem: A Tree for Solving Global Problems” in 1992. The book,
available at no cost online at NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
detailed how neem was used for everything from pest control to birth
control and from oral hygiene to its antibiotic, antiviral and
pain-relieving compounds. While the US
government is less enthusiastic about neem today than it was 15 years
ago, other governments are making significant investments in neem.
Millions of trees have been planted in the southern provinces of China
where the trees help prevent erosion on hilly lands and provide
non-toxic pesticides to nearby farms. Liberia and Nigeria have both
announced major initiatives to plant neem trees in dry areas where
nothing else will grow with the multiple objectives of stopping
desertification, creating an environmentally sustainable industry in
impoverished areas and providing affordable and effective medicine. One
clinical study from the University of Nigeria, published in the American Journal of Therapeutics,
showed that an acetone-water extract of neem leaf significantly
improved both lab results and physical symptoms in volunteers with HIV.
In India, where the tree is revered as the “healer of all illness,”
dozens of studies are underway with many focused on developing extracts
that appear to be preventing cancer in mice. 6) What do you foresee in the future of neem trees and how do you plan to play a part in that future? My crystal ball doesn’t work well with neem. If you’d asked
me 15 years ago, I would have said that neem would now be as widely
used as aloe vera with broad support from medical, environmental and
economic development organizations for its efficacy, lack of side
effects and benefits to local ecosystems and economies. I’m not sure
why it hasn’t happened – certainly the international research justifies
its increased use. Part of the problem is probably the fact that it’s
“too good to be true” and so many herbs have been so overhyped that the
medical community and consumers are leery of the latest, greatest
product. My role will continue to evolve as
well. Neem Tree Farms will not become a major manufacturer – that
doesn’t hold any appeal to me personally – but I’m developing an
expertise in creating all-natural neem products that I think will be
well received in the market. In the US, most of the major players in
the neem industry work together as coopetition – or cooperative
competition – and I’ll continue to have an important role in that group
as well. |
