Diospyros malabarica

Scientific name: Diospyros malabarica(Desr.) Kostel

Family: Ebenaceae

Synonym: Diospyros peregrina Guerke

Bengali/Vernacular name: Deshi gab, Gab, Makur-kendi, Kala tendu.

Tribal name: Keth gula (Chakma), Thysee (Khumi), Kar pong (Murang), Taggaa-bawn (Rakhaing), Kock (Tripura), Gab gaith (Tanchangya).

English name: Malabar ebony, Gaub persimmon, River ebony, Indian persimmon.

Description of the plant: A small to medium-sized evergreen tree, up to 15 m tall, knotty and warty trunk and bushy crown. Leaves simple, alternate, 10-20 cm long, narrowly oblong, base obtuse, rounded, apex acute, obtuse or rounded, glabrous on both surfaces. Flowers unisexual, 4-merous, whitish in short axillary cymes, scented. Male flowers in 2-7 flowered cymes, shortly pedunculate. Female flowers solitary or rarely up to 5-flowered, subsessile, larger than the male ones. Fruit a globose berry, yellowish when ripe.

Plant parts used: Bark.

Medicinal uses: Decoction of bark is taken for the treatment of dysentery and abdominal pain.

Distribution: It is cultivated in homesteads throughout the country.

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