Johann Gerhard König

Johann Gerhard König (1728–1785) was a botanist and physician born in 1728 in Ungerhof, in Polish Livland. He was a private pupil of Carolus Linnaeus in 1757, and lived in Denmark from 1759 to 1767. From 1773 to 1785, he worked as a naturalist for the Nawab of Arcot in India. He was in Tranquebar with the Danish medical mission from 1773 to 1785.

In 1773, he received the Doctor's degree "in absentia" from the University of Copenhagen. As naturalist to the Nawab of Arcot he embarked on a voyage to the mountains north of Madras and to Ceylon, a description of which was later published in a Danish scientific journal. In 1778, König was transferred to a post with the British East India Company where he remained until his death, undertaking several scientific journeys and working with notable scientists like William Roxburgh. Perhaps the most notable of those journeys was to Thailand and the Malacca Straits in 1778-80.

He died in Jagrenatporum near Kakinada,Godaari district,Andhrapradesh in 1785.

He described many plants used in Indian Medicine. The Curry-leaf tree "Murraya koenigii" is named after him.

External links

* [http://linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/fbo/hand/koenig.html.en Linnean herbarium]
* [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1251641 Tranquebar and its History]