Ayurvedic hair care · Single herb
Neem
Azadirachta indica — the Indian lilac
Leaf powder, not neem oil.
Radico Organic Neem Leaf Powder is a single-ingredient scalp treatment, milled from Azadirachta indica leaf grown on our own certified organic farms. Almost everything written about neem for hair is written about neem oil, which is pressed from the seed — a different part of the tree, with a different principal compound and the strong sulphurous smell neem is known for. This is the leaf. It mixes with warm water into a paste, rinses out with water, and carries no pigment, so it will not colour hair or alter a herbal colour you already have.
What each herb is for
Radico makes eight single herbs for hair. They are not variations on one another — they do three different jobs.
Cleanse
Used in place of shampoo. Both clean through natural saponins, with far less lather than a detergent shampoo.
Scalp and roots
Worked into the scalp with the fingertips, where hair begins.
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Neem
Azadirachta indica
A flaking or tight-feeling scalp
You are here
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Bhringraj
Eclipta prostrata
Roots and thinning-feeling hair
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Brahmi
Bacopa monnieri
A sensitive or irritated scalp
Strand
Drawn through the lengths, where the hair itself needs help.
Two of the eight touch colour. Amla cools and deepens a henna result — which is exactly why it is in 23 of our 24 shades, as a deliberate part of the recipe. Add it yourself and it will shift a henna result cooler. Colorless henna is named for what it does not do, but a long application can leave a faint golden cast on white or very light hair. The other six — including neem — add no colour of their own. A spoonful of any of them changes nothing you would notice; a large share of any powder dilutes a blend, because there is then less colouring herb per gram.
- Botanical name
- Azadirachta indica
- Plant family
- Meliaceae — the mahogany family
- Part used
- Leaf. Not the seed, and not the oil
- Key leaf compound
- Nimbolide, a limonoid
- Smell
- Green and faintly bitter. The strong sulphurous smell belongs to the oil
- Acts on
- Scalp
- Effect on colour
- None
- In Radico’s shades
- None — the only one of our eight single herbs that appears in no shade at all
- Mixing with colour
- Adds no colour, so it will not shift a shade. Like any powder, a large share of it dilutes one
Composition
What is actually in neem leaf
Radico Organic Neem Leaf Powder has one ingredient: milled Azadirachta indica leaf, grown and processed on our own certified organic farms. Nothing is added — no fillers, no synthetic preservatives, no fragrance — so what reaches your scalp is what was in the leaf.
Principal leaf compound
Nimbolide
A limonoid — one of the tetranortriterpenoids that give the neem tree its character. Published work identifies nimbolide as the major limonoid of the leaf, as distinct from the seed.
- Formula
- C27H30O7
- Molecular weight
- 466.52 g/mol
- CAS number
- 25990-37-8
- PubChem CID
- 12313376
| Compound | Class | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Nimbolide | Limonoid | The major limonoid of the leaf |
| Nimbidin | Limonoid | Occurs across several parts of the tree |
| Quercetin | Flavonoid | A widely distributed plant polyphenol |
| β-Sitosterol | Plant sterol | A structural lipid of the leaf |
A note on azadirachtin
Azadirachtin is the compound neem is famous for, and most listings for neem powder name it. It belongs to the seed. The phytochemical literature treats azadirachtin and gedunin as seed constituents, while nimbolide is described as the major limonoid of the leaf. Radico Organic Neem Leaf Powder is milled leaf, so we name the compound the leaf actually carries rather than the one with the better-known name.
Leaf, seed and oil are three different products
Most of what is written about neem for hair is written about neem oil. It is a different material, and the difference matters before you buy.
| Leaf powder | Neem oil | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of the tree | Leaf | Seed kernel |
| How it is made | Dried and milled | Cold-pressed |
| Principal compound | Nimbolide | Azadirachtin |
| Smell | Green, mild, tea-like | Strong, sulphurous, garlic-like |
| Mixed with | Warm water, into a paste | Used neat or in a carrier oil |
| Washing out | Rinses with water | Usually needs shampoo, often twice |
| Into a colour mix | Yes — blends dry with the powders | No — oil interferes with plant dye |
This is what the leaf-powder method looks like. You are working with a water-based paste, so it spreads through the hair the way any of the Radico powders do, and it rinses out with water rather than needing to be shampooed away.
If you have read that neem smells strongly, that was about the oil. Leaf powder smells green and faintly bitter, closer to matcha than to anything sulphurous. And because it is a powder rather than an oil, it goes straight into a henna or Radico shade mix without affecting the colour.
What the research has examined — and what it has not
Neem is among the most-studied plants in the traditional pharmacopoeia. Laboratory work on its limonoids — nimbolide in particular — has examined antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity in cell and animal models.
Here is the honest position. That work uses isolated compounds and concentrated extracts, not milled leaf in a water paste on a human scalp. We are not claiming that this powder treats any scalp condition, and in the United States a cosmetic may not make that claim.
What we can tell you is what is in the powder, and how neem has been used: as a scalp herb, applied to the skin at the roots, for a very long time.
Radico Organic Neem Leaf Powder is a cosmetic product for external use on hair and scalp. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Azadirachta indica belongs to the Meliaceae family; if you have a known sensitivity, patch test on the inner forearm 48 hours before a full application.
In practice
What using neem looks like
Neem leaf powder is mixed with warm water into a paste and worked into the scalp. There is nothing to develop and no timing window to catch. The only real decision is how far down the hair you take it.
- Time on the hair30–45 minutesKept damp under a cap
- How oftenOnce a weekNo pigment in it to accumulate
- Effect on colourNoneSafe on coloured and uncoloured hair
Two ways to use it
Neem is a scalp herb, so most people only ever apply it to the roots and scalp — which uses a fraction of the powder. Take it through the lengths when the hair itself wants conditioning too.
Scalp treatment
Roots and scalp only
- Powder
- 5–8 g (about ¼ oz)
- Warm water
- 15–25 ml (½–1 fl oz)
Amounts shown for short to shoulder-length hair. This is how neem is used most of the time.
Full-length mask
Scalp through to the ends
- Powder
- 30 g (1 oz)
- Warm water
- 90–115 ml (3–4 fl oz)
Amounts shown for shoulder-length hair. Long or very thick hair needs 50–60 g.
Weigh the powder rather than spooning it. A spoonful of milled leaf can vary by as much as a third depending on the spoon and how it is scooped — which is why the numbers above are in grams. Add the water gradually, at roughly three times the powder’s weight in millilitres, until the paste holds on the brush without dripping.
Neem and colour
Neem is not one of the herbs in Radico’s 24 shades — the only one of our eight single herbs that appears in none of them. Reetha and shikakai are each in one, Sun Blonde; the other five are in eleven shades or more, and amla is in twenty-three. Those recipes are built from henna, indigo, amla and the other pigment and conditioning herbs. Neem does nothing for a colour, so there has never been a reason to put it in one. It is a scalp herb, and we keep it separate.
It adds no colour, though, so if you mix your own it can be blended into henna, indigo or any Radico shade without shifting the tone. Blend the dry powders together before adding water. Bear in mind that any powder you add takes up room: a spoonful makes no practical difference, but a large share lowers the concentration of the herbs that do the colouring, and the result comes out lighter.
What it will not do: neem will not darken a result and will not improve gray coverage. If a colour is coming out too light on gray, the answer is indigo or a different shade. Whether adding it changes how long a colour takes to develop, we have not measured, so we are not going to tell you either way.
The rest of the range
Neem is one of eight single herbs Radico makes for hair — two for cleansing, three for the scalp, three for the strand.
See all Ayurvedic hair care Organic Neem Leaf Powder
Single ingredient in every pouch. No fillers, no fragrance, no synthetic preservatives.