Scientists call it one of the most helpful plants on Earth.
At issue is the extent to which companies can claim and patent natural resources reaped from Third World countries. You shouldn't just go to the jungle and take home the knowledge of the medicine man and make money without benefiting the culture from which that knowledge arose. The neem tree is valued from its crown top to its roots. The value of neem is not lost on companies such as W.R. Grace of Boca Raton, Fla., the world's largest maker of specialty chemicals. In 1992, Grace secured exclusive U.S. rights to a formula that uses an extract from the tree's seeds to produce a powerful pesticide.