On November 22, 2023, the Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil, together with the former Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Vatan Karakaya, and accompanied by Biologist Tuğçe Sevencan, examined the Istanbul Zeytinburnu Medicinal Plants Garden, which is the first medicinal plant garden of Turkiye.

Stating that they exchanged information about the plants grown, functioning, and procedures in the Medicinal Plants Garden, Rector Karahocagil stated that many studies had been carried out at KAEU on this subject, and in this sense, joint studies could be carried out in many areas with the Istanbul Zeytinburnu Medicinal Plants Garden in the future.

Biologist Tuğçe Sevencan explained the goals of the project carried out jointly by Zeytinburnu Municipality and Merkezefendi Traditional Medicine Association as follows:  "to research, grow, and promote medicinal plants, to contribute to the protection and development of plant diversity, to encourage the effective and safe use of medicinal plants, to encourage the cultivation of medicinal plants, to provide working space and materials for training programs, and to provide the basis for studies on the use of medical flora."

The garden which was opened in 2005 and was established on an area of 14 decares, contains more than 700 medicinal plants. In the garden, plant waste is used as natural fertilizer. It was stated that most of the plants in the garden were labeled, and it was possible to get extensive and vocalized information about the plant through the QR code on some labels, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were not used, and drip and sprinkler methods were used for irrigation.