Ranee Prakash (Natural History Museum, London), "Samuel Browne- a cross-cultural study of medicinal plant use in India"
Prakash, R. 1, Carine, M.1, & Hawkins, J.A.2
1 Natural History Museum, South Kensington, UK
2 University of Reading, UK
In 1697 the English physician Samuel Brown (Browne) sent to London a collection of several hundred pressed and dried plant specimens that were prepared in India in the region of Fort St George (Chennai). These were incorporated as bound books (two volumes) and are now held in the historic collections of the Natural History Museum, London. Along with his original handwritten notes mentioning the medicinal and other uses of the plants, Browne also recorded their vernacular (native names).
Browne’s collection is a notable survivor from the late 17th century and provides unique insights into plant use in south India at the time. We compared Browne’s collections cross culturally with other contemporary plant uses of Hortus Malabaricus (Kerala) and Paul Hermann (Sri Lanka) in relation to today’s uses. This study provides a unique insight in the study of medicinally useful plants, highlights value of historic herbaria and shows new ways of looking at ethnobotanical data.
Current work at the Museum involves identifying the remaining collections from Samuel Browne (and other collectors from the Indian region) that we have in the Historic Collections room where we are reconstructing flora of Madras from late 17th to early 18th century (funded by Royal Society).
Link to the paper Samuel Browne’s late 17th century Indian herbarium: identifications and early modern taxonomic practice
in Botany Letters:
https://doi.org/10.1080/23818107.2023.2296095
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