Versatile Neem The Sarira Sthanam recommended that newborn infants should be anointed with herbs and oil, laid on a silken sheet and fanned with a branch of a neem tree with ample leaves. As the child grew it was given small doses of neem oil when ill and bathed with neem tea to treats cuts, rashes and the lesions of Chicken pox. Daily brushing with neem twigs helped kept both child and adult free of cavities and diseases of the gums. At the wedding ceremony neem leaves were strewn on the floor of the temple and the air fanned with neem branches. During adulthood neem bark was burned to make the red ash to be used for religious decoration of the body and neem branches were fanned at the front of religious processions. Neem oil lit the night in small lamps. The wood was used to cook the daily meals of beans and grains that had been kept free of insects during storage by mixing them with a light coating of neem oil or by mixing them with neem leaves. Ayurvedic preparations with neem were given for illnesses and neem wood used to make the roof of the house. And at the time of death, neem branches cover the body and neem wood was burned in the funeral pyre.
