Itty Achudan 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.

10), H.Y.Mohan Ram states that the ethno-medical information presented in Hortus Malabaricus, was culled from palm leaf manuscripts by Itty Achudan, who dictated the material in Malayalam, which was then scrutinized by three Konkani Brahmanas—gymnosophist priest-physicians (referred to in the text as ‘brahmins’) Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka Pandit and Appu Bhat, followed by a process of thorough verification, discussion with other scholars and general agreement.

[7] Volume 1 of the Hortus Malabaricus contains a testimony by Itty Achudan, dated 20 April 1675, which can be translated as follows: "As intended by the hereditary Malayalam physician born in Kollatt house in Codacarappalli village of Carrapurram and residing therein.

[9] Many of the descriptions that accompany each plant in Hortus Malabaricus thus remains as cultural storehouse of the incidental sociological situation and social affinities carried by the flora of those times.

[10] In the research paper published in the journal Global Histories, entitled 'Plants, Power and Knowledge: An Exploration of the Imperial Networks and the Circuits of Botanical Knowledge and Medical Systems on the Western Coast of India Against the Backdrop of European Expansionism', Malavika Binny states that Kerala had medical traditions that existed even prior to Ayurvedic tradition.

[11] Calicut University botany taxonomist Professor K. S. Manilal, of Kozhikode, devoted over 35 years to research, translation and annotation of the Latin Hortus Malabaricus.

Manilal's work is also of historic and socio-cultural importance, as it brought insights into the life and times of Itty Achudan and the 17th century Malabar, information concerning the former being previously known only to the Kollat family.

[12] In 1996, Manilal also authored a separate book in the Malayalam language; the title which translates as A Study on the Role of Itty Achuden in the Compilation of Hortus Malabaricus.

This book was the result of specific additional research undertaken with the objective of collecting factual evidence and clarifying various misconceptions, about the original Hortus Malabaricus.