Kendu leaf

Coromandel ebony
Bark of the Coromandel ebony
Scientific classification
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 that is native to India and Sri Lanka and that 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 and Jharkhand it is known as kendu. The leaves can be wrapped around tobacco to create the Indian beedi, which has outsold conventional cigarettes in India.

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.

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