Though several studies have been carried out on the plants described in Hortus Malabaricus, there are not many successful efforts to collect and conserve the plants described in it. A project for the collection and ex situ conservation of the medicinal plants described in van Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus was launched at SGRF, Cheruthuruthy, Shornur, Kerala in 2016. As of Sept 2019, the collection of plant species at SGRF comprises 581 of the plants mentioned in Hortus Malabaricus, including wild orchids, tubers, trees, herbs and aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. The important collection contains many of those plants which are rare, endemic and endangered species; several of them have disappeared from their typical localities described by van Rheede. Our goal is to complete the collection in the next 3 years and provide it to the public and academic community as base for education and research. In addition, the garden has over 100 wild orchids species, a banana garden, cycads, palms, ferns and various other plants that grow naturally in Kerala.
About SGRF
SciGenom Research Foundation (SGRF), a not-for-profit organization, is working to promote Science in India through research and education. Currently the foundation is involved in a number of research initiatives that are typically not funded by government agencies, but identified as scientifically relevant and important in consultation with our scientific advisory board. We have ongoing research activities spanning Agriculture, Animal health, Biodiversity, Genomics, Snake Venom and Human Health. Our research work has contributed to many publications in international peer reviewed scientific journals - the highlights being the Nature Dec 2019 cover page on Genome Asia and in Nature Genetics Jan 2020 cover page on the Indian Cobra Genome. The ongoing projects include the study of genomics of colored rice, metagenomics of rivers in India, wild elephant viral disease genomics, tea looper biocontrol agent development, familial cancer genomics and human genome variation studies.
In addition to research activities, through our education arm SGRF Conferences, we have conducted a number of educational workshops and international conferences to promote science in India. Besides our educational activities, we have instituted awards to recognize outstanding educators and support students through scholarships.