Itty Achuden

Place: Kadakkarappally

Biography:

Itty Achudan, also known as Itty Achuden, was an Indian Herbalist, Botanist and Physician. He belonged to an Ezhava family in Kerala who practised pre-Ayurvedic systems of traditional medicine. He was born in Kadakkarappally, a coastal village, north-west of Cherthala town, in Kerala, South India. He was the most remarkable Indian figure associated with Hortus Malabaricus, the botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of flora in Malabar (present day Kerala), in the 17th-century. He was the key informant who disclosed the pre-Ayurvedic traditional knowledge about the plants of Malabar to the Dutch Governor of Malabar, Hendrik van Rheede. Hortus Malabaricus was published posthumously in Amsterdam between 1678 and 1693. Itty Achudan was introduced to Van Rheede by Veera Kerala Varma, the then ruler of the erstwhile state of Kochi.