The Institute, formerly known as Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), is an R & D Institution established in 1979 by Government of Kerala for conserving the tropical plant genetic resources and to develop strategies for their sustainable utilization. The JNTBGRI is currently functioning as one of the Institutions of the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), which is an autonomous organization, established by Government of Kerala for promoting Science and Technology developments of the country particularly in Kerala State. The Government of India has recognized the JNTBGRI as a National Centre of Excellence. The institute is ideally located at the foot hills of the Western Ghats (at Palode, 40 km away from Thiruvananthapuram – Shencottah Road) in a 121 hectare forest land with hills and hillocks and evergreen, deciduous, marshy and riverine vegetation in addition to grasslands and rocky areas providing different microclimatic conditions for the profusion of the tropical species. There is no ideal organization at present in India with such diverse habitats and vegetation to undertake research on plant diversity conservation and sustainable utilization of plant wealth. The institute is currently conserving more than 4000 species of flowering plants and about 300 species of non-flowering angiosperms, which is the highest number of plant species conserved among the botanic gardens in Asia. The institute has an extention centre viz Saraswathy Thangavelu Centre at Puthenthope where the Bioinformatics Centre is established.

The Bioinformatics programme was initiated at JNTBGRI in 1998 by the launching of a Sub-Distributed Information Centre, as part of the Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISNET) program of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. The program was initially aimed to establish computer and communication infrastructure facilities for promoting biotechnology based R & D. Recognising the importance of Bioinformatics on fulfilling the main objectives of JNTBGRI i.e., to prepare a comprehensive information system on plant genetic diversity of the country particularly of the Western Ghats and novel discoveries in plant science, the Institute has established the Bioinformatics R & D Centre in 2002  with financial support from DBT in a separate campus at Saraswathy Thangavelu Centre of JNTBGRI, Puthenthope, Thiruvananthapuram.  Since its inception the Centre has been focussed on biodiversity informatics, validation of drug activity in Indian medicinal plants and human resource development. >> More