Hortus Malabaricus
Hortus Malabaricus (transl. The Garden of Malabar) is a 17th-century Latin botanical treatise documenting the varieties and medicinal properties of the flora of the Malabar coast. It was compiled in 12 volumes by Hendrik van Rheede, the Governor of Dutch Malabar from 1669 to 1676. Itty Achudan, a distinguished herbalist among the traditional ezhava physicians of Kerala, was Van Rheede's key who disclosed the traditional Ayurvedic knowledge about the plants of Malabar to him.
Title page of the original Latin edition of Hortus Malabaricus, vol. 12 | |
| Author | Hendrik van Rheede, Itty Achudan |
|---|---|
Publication date | 1678–1693 |
Hortus Malabaricus was published posthumously in Amsterdam between 1678 and 1693. English and Malayalam translations of Hortus Malabaricus were published by University of Kerala in 2003 and 2008, respectively, which was largely due to the efforts of Professor K. S. Manilal, an Emeritus of the University of Calicut who devoted over 35 years of his life to research for the translation and annotation work of the original text of Hortus Malabaricus in Latin.