Leaves
The opposite, pinnate leaves are 20–40 centimetres (7.9–16 in) long, with 20 to 31 medium to dark green leaflets about 3–8 centimetres (1.2–3.1 in) long. The terminal leaflet is often missing. The petioles are short. The leaves are also used in Pakistan to give baths to children suffering from skin diseases.The leaves are used in this manner that first they are washed thoroughly. Then 5-10 leaves along with the branch are boiled till the water turns green The water is then used for varying purposes. Elders find it useful in controlling high blood sugar level and is said to clean up the blood. Neem is also used to give baths to the Muslim dead. Neem leaves are dried in Pakistan and placed in cupboards to prevent insects eating the clothes. Neem leaves are dried and burnt in the tropical regions of Pakistan to keep away mosquitoes. These leaves are also used in many Indian festivals (by making them into garlands).
Read more about this topic: Azadirachta Indica
Famous quotes containing the word leaves:
“In such a night, when passing clouds give place,
Or thinly veil the heavens mysterious face;
When in some river, overhung with green,
The waving moon and trembling leaves are seen;”
—Anne Finch, Countess Of Winchilsea (16611720)
“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?”
—Oscar Wilde (18541900)
“There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow bowed in controllable grief, this one obscuring them with a smooth silver as of placid tears. They please, like the minor French novelists of the eighteenth century, by suggesting a universe in which nothing cuts deep.”
—Rebecca West (18921983)