Orta, Garcia de, Aproximadamente 1499-1568

"Garcia de Orta (Castelo de Vide, ca. 1500 - Goa, ca. 1568) fue un científico judío portugués del Renacimiento, médico, naturalista y explorador. Fue un pionero de la medicina tropical."

"Garcia de Orta (or Garcia d'Orta) (1501? - 1568) was a Portuguese Renaissance Sephardi Jewish physician, herbalist and naturalist. He was a pioneer of tropical medicine, pharmacognosy and ethnobotany, working mainly in Goa, then a Portuguese colony in India. Garcia de Orta used an experimental approach to the identification and use of herbal medicines rather than the traditional approach of using received knowledge. His magnum opus was a book on the simples (herbs used singly) and drugs published in 1563 Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India, the earliest treatise on the medicinal and economic plants of India. Carolus Clusius translated it into Latin which was widely used as a standard reference text on medicinal plants. Garcia de Orta died before the Goa Inquisition began in Goa but in 1569 his sister was burnt at the stake for being a secret Jew and based on her confession his remains were later exhumed and burnt along with an effigy. Memorials recognizing his contributions have been built both in Portugal and India."