Hortus Malabaricus – A Treasure of Anukta dravya Practices

P Aswathy; S Aravind

doi:10.4103/joa.joa_292_20

REVIEW ARTICLE

Year : 2022 | Volume : 16 | Issue : 4 | Page : 312-315

Hortus Malabaricus – A Treasure of Anukta dravya Practices

P Aswathy¹, S Aravind²
¹ Department of Roga Nidana Evam Vikriti Vijnana, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
² Department of Indian Systems of Medicine, Government Ayurveda Dispensary, Sivapuram, Government of Kerala, Kerala, India

Date of Submission	18-Nov-2020
Date of Decision	04-Mar-2021
Date of Acceptance	25-Mar-2021
Date of Web Publication	17-Dec-2022

Correspondence Address:
P Aswathy
Department of Roga Nidana Evam Vikriti Vijnana, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur - 302 002, Rajasthan
India

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/joa.joa_292_20

Abstract

Objective: Hortus Malabaricus is a Latin book exploring the natural plant wealth of Malabar region of Kerala which contains detailed illustrations of 742 plants with their medicinal uses. This book contains details of unexplored Anukta Dravyas which was not mentioned in Samhitas and classical textbooks of Ayurveda. Thus the study was designed to explore the unexplored clinical practices of drugs mentioned in Hortus Malabaricus. Data Source: The data was collected from the twelve volumes of Hortus Malabaricus, related published journal articles, proceedings, and books. Review Method: The method of data collection includes literature review of Hortus Malabaricus and online literature search of journal articles and proceedings using Mesh terms. Conclusion: The results showed that Schagericottam, Karinjotta, Kattumayilellu, Neeruri, Mayilellu, Pavatta, Kurutu pala, Tindapariva, etc., explained in different volumes of Hortus Malabaricus had medicinal importance. These documented traditional knowledge practices in Hortus Malabaricus are to be scientifically evaluated for the betterment of public health.

Keywords: Anukta Dravya, folk medicine, Hortus Malabaricus

How to cite this article:
Aswathy P, Aravind S. Hortus Malabaricus – A Treasure of Anukta dravya Practices. J Ayurveda 2022;16:312-5

How to cite this URL:
Aswathy P, Aravind S. Hortus Malabaricus – A Treasure of Anukta dravya Practices. J Ayurveda [serial online] 2022 [cited 2023 Mar 27];16:312-5. Available from: http://www.journayu.in/text.asp?2022/16/4/312/364047

Introduction

Hortus Malabaricus, also represented as the Garden of Malabar is a comprehensive book having twelve volume selaborating the natural plant wealth in Malabar region of Kerala state. This book is the compilation of the work done by Henrick Adrian Van Rheede and was written in Latin language and was published from Amsterdam during 1678-1693.

Hortus Malabaricus contains detailed explanations of 742 plants representing 690 taxa found in Malabar region of Kerala, along with their beautiful illustrations, descriptions and medicinal uses explained in Latin language. The names of plants are also written in four other languages mainly Malayalam, Arabic, Konkani and Roman.^[1]

Hortus Malabaricus hallmarks an important era in the history of Botany and Taxonomy. Carolus Linnaeus, who is considered as the father of Modern Botany and Father of Modern taxonomy– the pioneer of plant classification referred Hortus Malabaricus and he has explained this fact in his books. Hortus Malabaricus represents an important reference for the explanation, nomenclature and classification of plant species from Asia in Linnaeus's treatise “Species Plantarum” published in 1753. Approximately, three fifty plants explained in Hortus Malabaricus were used by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum and major contributions in the form of vernacular names of Indian Plants came from Malabar region of Kerala.^[2]

Hortus Malabaricus represents the pioneer book detailing the survey of plants from Asia, especially from Malabar region of Kerala. Moreover, many local malayalam names of plants were used in binomial nomenclature system and the best examples are Elettariacardamomum, Carica papaya, Averrhoa bilimbi, Mimusopselengi, Micheliachambaca respectively from the Malayalam words Elathari, Pappaya, Bilimbi, Elanji and Champaka.^[3]

In the book –“Account of the work Ratio operis” which is the introduction to the book “Genera plantarum”, Linnaeus clearly mentioned that he had consulted Hortus Elthamensi by Dillen and Hortus Malabaricus by Van Rheede for the completion of the work. Linnaeus had given the name Rheed to a genus of an American plant, as an acknowledgement for the work done by Rheedeon Hortus Malabaricus.^[4]

The significance of Hortus Malabaricus is that this book gives a detailed account on the medicinal plants, their therapeutic uses and properties. The relevance of this book is the unique explanation and exploration of the popular indigenous medical knowledge of Malabar region of Kerala which is not authentically recorded in any other classical medicinal textbooks published from Kerala and India. The twelve volumes of Hortus Malabaricus was edited by different experts. The first volume was edited by Arnold Seyen, second to fifth volume was done by J. Munnicks. The edition of sixth volume was done by T.J. Van Almeloveen and seven to twelve volumes was edited by A. Van Poot[5][6].

The information explained in Hortus Malabaricus is authentically collected mainly from an Ayurveda Vaidya - Itty Achuthan and three Konkani physicians –Appu Bhatt, Vinayak Pandit and Ranga Bhatt. The primary informant and the major contributor - Itty Achuthan belongs to Kollatt Vaidyan's family in Cochin. The Kollatt Vaidyan means head of the family who practiced medicine and Itty Achuthan is the follower of Kolatt Vaidyan. The Kollatt Vaidyan's family has maintained a family book containingleafy manuscripts written in Malayalam (Kolezhuthu) language which contains description of medicinal plants with their vernacular names, therapeutic application in different disease conditions and method of preparation of formulations enriched with clinical experiences of individual vaidyans. The information explained in Hortus Malabaricus is directly or indirectly gained from this family book of Collatt Vaidyan's family. A medicinal plant data analysis of Hortus Malabaricus revealed that 675 species are explained out of which 554 plants are used as medicines and 121 plants explained has no use among the local traditional practitioners.^[7]

Hortus Malabaricus remains as an unopened classical bookin Kerala due to its language constraints. The solution for resolving language constraint for re investigating Hortus Malabaricus and its wise use has been initiated by Prof. Manilalby translating Hortus into Malayalam and English language.These volumes are now accessible to academicians, researchers and clinicians all over the world.^[1]

Anuktadravya practices are practices (uses) of medicinal plants which are not explained on the classical Ayurvedic textbooks. There is a detailed description of Anukta Dravya practices in Hortus Malabaricus which is not yet explored. The information on the medicinal use of plants described in Hortus Malabaricus hasto be validated and can add to the Ayurveda Pharmacopeia.^[8]

Aim

The study was designed to explore some of the unexplored clinical practices of the drugs mentioned in Hortus Malabaricus.

Materials and Methods

The data were collected through a detailed literature review of 12 volumes of the book Hortus Malabaricus and published articles related to the work. The extra pharmacopeial drugs which are not explained in the Ayurveda Samhitas and those having relevant medicinal importance were identified, thoroughly studied, and explained with available information. The data were analyzed and conclusions were drawn.

Results and Discussion

The results showed some AnuktaDravyas such as mentioned in Hortus Malabaricus such as Schagericottam, Karinjotta, Kattumayilellu, Neeruri, Mayilellu, Pavatta, Kurutupala, Tindapariva etc., explained in different volumes of Hortus Malabaricus had medicinal importance in the current scenario and are not included in our Dravya Guna Vijnana related textbooks. The details of these drugs are explained in [Table 1].

Table 1: List of selected medicinal plants and their properties

Click here to view

These documented traditional knowledge practices are to be scientifically evaluated for the betterment of public health and are to be included in the pharmacopoeia.

Conclusion

The explorative study on HortusMalabaricus had revealed a number of unexplored clinical practices of some commonly used medicinal plants in Malabar region of Kerala with its Botanical name, family, useful part, form of administration and therapeutic indications. These practices are to be introduced into Ayurveda Pharmacopeia and are to be scientifically validated using experimental and clinical trials.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

References

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