This tree was grown from a 1,000-year-old seed unearthed by archaeologists inside a cave in the Judean Desert. The species of the tree remains a mystery, according to the botanists who planted the seed 14 years ago.
Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem where the 10-foot tree lives. Sallon provided a leaf from the tree to George Mason University biologist Dr. Andrea Weeks who sequenced its DNA. While the tree belongs to the genus Commiphora, it's exact species is unknown and likely extinct, the researchers report in a new scientific paper.
While Sallon initially suspected the tree could be the source of the "Balm of Gilead"—a resin used to make perfume and referenced in the Bible—no aromatic compounds were found in its resin.
From CNN:
Instead, the team detected some compounds known for their medicinal use, including "guggulterols," which have been identified from the resin of the related tree species Commiphora wightii as having potential cancer-fighting properties, the study noted[…]
Due to the presence of those healing compounds, Sallon and her colleagues concluded that the tree may have instead been the source of a medicinal balm known as tsori that is also mentioned in historical texts.
Previously:
• Ancient psychedelic wisdom for modern medicine
• Scientists revive a 30,000 year old Pleistocene-era plant
