© 2020 PP House Melia dubia and its Importance: A Review Manika Goswami 1 , Shikha Bhagta 2 and Dushyant Sharma 3* 1 Dept. of Fruit Science, College of Hortculture and Forestry, Neri, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (177 001), India 2 Dept. of Tree Improvement and Genetc Resources, Dr. Y. S. Parmar University of Hortculture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh (173 230), India 3 Dept. of Tree Improvement and Genetc Resources, College of Hortculture and Forestry, Neri, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh (177 001), India Melia dubia popularly known as Malabar Neem is a promising multpurpose tree highly suitable for farm forestry and agro forestry for generatng higher income per unit area. Melia dubia is one of the fastest growing trees in the world and considered as a money spinning tree of short rotaton due to its high demand in pulpwood, plywood and tmber industries. It is a good fuel and fodder yielding tree. In additon to this, Melia dubia also has extensive medicinal, pharmacological, ethnomedicinal and conventonal propertes and uses. The current artcle reviews literature on importance of Melia dubia for tmber industry and medicinal value. 1. Introducton The less forest area coupled with the low productvity of Indian forest has ushered in a total mismatch between the demand and supply of both domestc and industrial wood requirement besides creatng environmental disequilibrium (Parthiban et al., 2011). The current supply of raw materials for industries like pulpwood, plywood, and furniture and biomass energy in the country is far behind the demand. Not only is the forest wealth of the country is poor but its productvity in terms of MAI is also one of the lowest. The MAI of Indian Forest is a meager of 0.5-0.7 m 3 ha -1 compared to the global average of 2.1 m 3 ha -1 (Srivastava, 2005). India is likely to face severe shortage of supply of tmber to meet its requirement from both domestc and internatonal front. Global demand for wood is increasing at an annual rate of 1.7% (South, 1999). It is estmated that the demand for tmber is likely to grow from 58 million cubic meters in 2005 to 153 million cubic meters in 2020 (Saravanan et al., 2014). At the same tme, planted forest resources are insufcient to meet current demands. The scope for expansion of forested areas is limited (Gregory et al., 2002). This trend creates economic pressure that encourages the commercial exploitaton of natural forests unless supply can be increased through the establishment of high yielding plantatons. The use of fast growing, elite trees enable early harvest and so it helps to improve yield. However, considering the acute shortage of suitable raw material, the industries have to establish plantaton of suitable species to achieve maximum yield within a short rotaton period. Melia dubia is one such alternatve species suitable for tmber, plywood, pulpwood and fuel wood. More than 80% of the world’s populaton presently uses herbal medicines for their primary health care as alternatve system of medicine (Valentna et al., 2013). Demand for herbal drug is increasing throughout the world due to growing recogniton of natural plant based products, being non toxic, having no side efects, easily available at afordable price (Kalia, 2018). Melia dubia tree in additon to use in wood industry have many potental medicinal propertes. In additon to the commercial importance, this helps in preventng temperature rise and checking gas emission into the atmosphere as the trees are naturally endowed to absorb maximum CO 2 . Due to high value in tmber industry, environment amelioraton and potental medicinal propertes, Melia dubia has been selected in present investgaton. 2. Habit and Habitat It is an indigenous species of south-east Asia and Australia belonging to family Meliaceae. In India, it is naturally found at an alttude of 600-1,800 m, especially in the Sikkim Himalayas, Antoxidant, antmicrobial, antfeedent, Melia dubia, tmber Keywords: Abstract Article History Artcle ID: IJEP0351 Received in 27 th December, 2019 Received in revised form 11 th January, 2020 Accepted in fnal form 19 th January, 2020 Dushyant Sharma e-mail: sharmadus@gmail.com Corresponding Author Review Article Doi: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.23910/2/2020.0351 029 International Journal of Economic Plants 2020, 7(1):029-033