1.2.3 Comparison between home-made products and commercial products

Home-made extracts and cold pressed oil based on high quality seed kernels possess excellent pesticidal properties but have the disadvantage that they are unstable and therefore cannot be stored. In addition they are laborious to prepare and are therefore only applicable and accepted by small farmers whose farms do not exceed 1-2 ha in size. Therefore there is a need for commercial neem products which have a longer shelf-life and are more stable in the field.

However, any extraction process required in the production of commercial pesticides will select some of the many active ingredients in neem, and will consequently disturb the synergistic and additive effects.