An Overview of Antibacterial and Antifungal Effects of Azadirachta indica Crude Extract: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Azadirachta indica, commonly known as neem, or Margosa, originated in India. It is one of the species in the Azadirachta genus. It is native to South Asia's Indian subcontinent and dry areas such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives. The plant has long been used in Ayurvedic and folk medicine and it is now commonly used in cosmetics and organic agriculture. Several pharmacological activities were identified from the crude extract of Azadirachta indica, which have attracted a lot of research interest from scientists. This narrative review explores the vast potential of neem in eliciting antibacterial and antifungal effects. Furthermore, we highlight the various effects of different types of solvent and several parts of the neem plant on growth inhibition of bacteria and fungi by performing the inhibition zone technique using the disc diffusion method, one of the commonly used methods to measure bacterial, fungal growth.