Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar  Lieutenant-Colonel Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar FLS IMS (24 May 1849 – 9 May 1917) was an army surgeon in British India and an amateur botanist. An early Indian member of the Bombay Natural History Society he had a special interest in medicinal plants, he published many papers on botany and a major work on "Indian medicinal plants" was posthumously published by his colleague Major B.D. Basu. He illustrated many of the plates in the book. Kirtikar was born in Bombay and studied at the Grant Medical College before travelling to England in 1874 where he became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1876. He joined the Indian Medical Service at a time when it had few Indians and served in the 19th Native Infantry at Solapur and saw action in the Afghan War (1878-1880) and was awarded for gallant behaviour in the Battle of Maiwand. He then became a Civil Surgeon at Thane from 1881. He also served as 2nd Surgeon at the JJ Hospital and as Professor of Anatomy, Botany and Materia Medica at the Grant Medical College around 1886. He was made Fellow of the Bombay University in 1897 and served as Health Officer for Bombay. He was a contemporary and protege of Dr Sakharam Arjun at the Grant Medical College but during the famous case of Rukhmabai, step-daughter of Dr Arjun, Kirtikar was a hostile witness in court and supported Dadaji Bhikaji, the groom of Rukhmabai. In 1902 he was promoted to Brigade Surgeon-Lieut.Colonel. He retired in 1904. He took an interest in social and literary pursuits apart from science. He was a member of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, the Bombay Natural History Society and served as a Trustee of the Aryan Education Institute and as director of the Deccan Education Society and published several non-botanical works including poetry titled "Indirakavya", "Bhakti Sudha", and "Vilaplahiri". He took an interest in fungi, cryptogams and algae that grow in hot-water springs at Bhiwandi. He also made microscopic observations on pollen. In 1896 he made a trip to Australia and wrote an article on his experiences in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. Kirtikar wrote a series on the poisonous plants of Bombay and was working on medicinal plants.