Coromandel ebony
Bark of Diospyros melanoxylon.jpg
Bark of the Coromandel ebony
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ebenaceae
Genus: Diospyros
Species:
D. melanoxylon
Binomial name
Diospyros melanoxylon
Roxb.
Synonyms
  • Diospyros dubia Wall. ex A.DC.
  • Diospyros exsculpta Bedd.
  • Diospyros exsculpta Dalzell & Gibson
  • Diospyros montana B.Heyne ex A.DC.
  • Diospyros roylei Wall. ex A.DC.
  • Diospyros rubiginosa Roth
  • Diospyros tupru Buch.-Ham.
  • Diospyros wightiana Wall. nom. inval.

Diospyros melanoxylon, the Coromandel ebony or East Indian ebony, is a species of flowering tree in the family Ebenaceae native to India and Sri Lanka; it has a hard, dry bark. Its common name derives from Coromandel, the coast of southeastern India. Locally it is known as temburini or by its Hindi name tendu. In Odisha, Jharkhand, and Assam, it is known as kendu. The leaves can be wrapped around tobacco to create the Indian beedi, which has outsold conventional cigarettes in India.

Tendu patta (leaf) collection

Pharmacology

The leaf of the tree contains valuable flavones. The pentacyclic triterpenes found in the leaves possess antimicrobial properties, while the bark shows antihyperglycemic activity. The bark of four Diospyros species found in India has been determined to have significant antiplasmodial effects against Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria in humans.

Method of collection

Tendu leaves are used as a wrapper for Beedi. During the summer fresh leaves are produced by the suckers coming up from the soil. This is also enhanced by setting fire beneath Tendu tree. The fresh leaves are hand-picked by the tribals and dried in sun for 10 days. This practice is seen in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh states of India. The State Government gives the license for collection and processing of the tendu leaves through tender every year.


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Diospyros melanoxylon, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.