*Corresponding author: E-mail: mvashishtha.chem@mnit.ac. Department of Chemical Engineering Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur-302017 (INDIA), Tel: +91 (141) 2713492, +91 9549659085 Chemical Methodologies 2(2018) 299-307 Chemical Methodologies Journal homepage: http://chemmethod.com Original Research article Experimental Determination of Nutrient Release from Neem Oil (Azadirachta indica) Coated Urea Shiv Om Meena, Manish Vashishtha*, Ankush Meena Department of Chemical Engineering Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur-302017 (INDIA) ARTICLE INFORMATION ABSTRACT Received: 10 May 2018 Received in revised: 10 June 2018 Accepted: 9 June 2018 Available online: 0 1 July 2010 DOI: 10.22034/CHEMM.2018.66186 An accurate estimate of nutrient release pattern from controlled release fertilizer (CRF) is required both for manufacturers as well for farmers because of the fact that it helps them in understanding fertilizer potency and nutrient planning for the crops. Understanding the release pattern of different types of CRF under laboratory conditions as well as in the crop- field is essential in order to determine the fertilizer utilization efficiency on plant growth. The present work explains a simple experimental approach to understand the nutrient release from Neem coated urea (NCU). The coating of Urea with Neem oil (derived from seeds and leaves) inhibits the process of nitrification and reduces the formation of nitrates which in-turn will reduce N2O emissions. It prevents the loss of urea in the soil. It also controls a large number of pests such as caterpillars, beetles, leafhoppers, borer, mites etc. Also, Neem coating is biodegradable and so it is environmentally- friendly as compared to many non biodegradable polymers used as coating materials in CRF. UV-Vis spectrometer is employed to determine the amount of released nitrogen. The approach reduced analytical error by preventing sample dilution before measuring. According to laboratory results, the obtained UV-Vis spectrometer proved to be a handy and efficient equipment for studying the nutrient release behaviour from CRF. The release profile presents a sigmoidal shape which is in good agreement with the other works in the area reported in the literature. The obtained experimental results are also in tune with the criteria specified by European Committee for Standardization for CRF. KEYWORDS Controlled release Neem coated Urea UV-Vis spectrometer