The “Hortus Malabaricus,” or “Garden of Malabar,” is one of the earliest and fullest books on the plants and medicines of tropical Asia. Dutch Gov. Hendrik Adriaan Baron Van Rheede directed its compilation in Cochin. It appeared in twelve folio volumes in Amsterdam between 1686 and 1703. The volumes contain 794 detailed copper-plate engravings. People from different cultures carried out this scientific work.
To record the medicinal properties of Kerala’s plants, people gathered specimens from across the countryside and brought them to Cochin. Father Matthaeus, a Carmelite monk, sketched them with botanical accuracy, and indigenous scholars and practitioners dictated the core medical and botanical knowledge. Itti Achuthan, a prominent traditional Ezhava physician, gave it, and three Gaud Saraswat scholars, Ranga Bhat, Vinayak Pandit and Appu Bhat, helped him. People initially documented each plant’s description and therapeutic properties in Malayalam, and Emmanuel Carneiro translated them into Portuguese. Herman Van Douep, the Dutch civil secretary, finally translated them into Latin, so the traditional Ayurvedic knowledge of Malabar reached European universities and scientific institutions.
