Thousand-year-old seed found in cave may be from legendary biblical tree

 

The tree that grew from a mysterious seed found in a desert cave may hide a treasure. The plant may be the source of tsori, a type of medicinal balm that appears in the Bible. Another name is balm of Gilead.

 

Carbon dating has found that the seed, found in a cave in the Judean Desert, dates back to between 993 and 1202 AD. It is therefore about 1,000 years old, but it germinated anyway.

 

The tree was actually planted in 2010 — but the studies only came out now. The scientists responsible spent these years developing studies to better understand which tree they were talking about.

Unidentified plant

 

The tree is still in a pot and has been identified as belonging to the Commiphora species, the same family that gives rise to frankincense (a type of incense) and myrrh.

 

Although there are several studies, the plant has not been identified with certainty. More information should be discovered after the first flowering — which should only happen after it passes into the soil.

 

The director of the Louis Borick Natural Medicine Research Center, Dr. Sarah Sallon, works in Jerusalem and was responsible for finding the seed archived at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was stored during the 1980s by Professor Joseph Patrich, who found it during an excavation.

 

The professor had previously found other seed archives. However, these were almost 2,000 years old! After being planted, they germinated. The first seedling was named after Methuselah — a biblical figure who died at the age of 969.

 

How was the planting?

 

Dr. Elaine Solowey, director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute in Israel, was responsible for the germination on both occasions. The Commiphora plant was planted in 2010 and germinated five weeks later. As soon as it developed the cork (the “bark”), the tree began to produce resin.

 

Several experts in plants, genomes, DNA, archaeologists and historians have formed a team of researchers from around the world to better understand the tree.

 

The team is now waiting to see if the tree will produce any type of aroma. Depending on this, there is a possibility that it is the tree that produced Judean balsam, a plant that no longer exists. However, studies do not point in this direction.

 

The plant, however, has strong healing powers and may be associated with tsori. Studies show that it has compounds associated with anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral and antitumor activities.