TRADITIONAL METHOD OF NEEM SEED OIL EXTRACTION IN NORTH EASTERN NIGERIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

A study was carried out on the traditional method of processing neem seed oil. Six major operations are involved in the production process namely: collection of seeds, cleaning/sorting of seeds, shelling/winnowing of seeds to separate the kernel from the shell, hulling/winnowing to separate the seed from the shell, crushing of kernel (size reduction) using mortar and pestle and extraction of oil. All the operations are currently carried out manually. The problems associated with this processing method were identified to include inefficient (as it only extracts about 35.26 % of available oil), tedious and time consuming. Solutions that will improve the quality and quantity of the product were proposed