melia azedarach

[Ian Staples]

In article <3611F4B0.B3D558BE at archimex.com>, archimex at archimex.com wrote:
>Melia azedarach or Chinaberry or Texas umbrelle tree or Persian lilac.

G'day Viviane,

Just curious -- when I saw this, I at first assumed it was an old
synonym for _Azidirachta indica_, the neem tree.  But I see that
Willis [a rather old edition I have to confess] still treats your 
_Melia azedarach_ as a valid name.  In fact, he says it refers to
something called the "beadtree" and adds that it is cultivated.

So now I'm *really* curious! :-)  Just what is this plant?  What is
it used for?  Why do you want leaves when it's called a beadtree?

>We would like to buy young leaves of melia azedarach. Leaves have to be
>frozen straight away after the crop. We urgently need about 2 tons.

And you're not exactly looking for a small sample of the thing! :-)

Cheers,  Ian S.

P.S. Hmm... yes people do seems to have done a bit of work on this
one. See:  http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/farmacy2.pl for
chemical data.
Also see: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/ethnobot.pl for the
myriads of ethnobotanical uses.



ianstDELETE at THISdpi.qld.gov.au