An international team of botanists, agriculturists and historians has successfully grown a mature tree from an ancient seed found in a cave in Israel.
In the 1980s, researchers excavating a cave in the Judean Desert, in Israel, uncovered a seed that was subsequently dated to sometime between 993 and 1202 AD, making it approximately 1,000 years old. Testing of the seed suggested that it was still viable, so the research team planted and tended to it. A little while later, it sprouted. Now, 14 years later, the tree has grown to maturity.
Dr. Sarah Sallon, director of the Louis Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, found the seed in the Institute of Archaeology of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Prof. Joseph Patrich had excavated it from Wadi el Makkuk in the mid-1980s.
Dr. Elaine Solowey, director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, germinated the seeds.
The tree, which the team has named Sheba, is approximately 3 meters in height with green leaves on its limbs. As the tree has grown, the researchers have conducted a study of its wood, resin and leaves. They report that its type is now extinct.
They also found evidence of pentacyclic triterpenoids—compounds that are known to reduce inflammation in human patients. And they found an oil type, a squalene that is known to be an antioxidant and which has also been used as a skin treatment.
Finding the seed in a cave, the team notes, suggests that people living in the region planted such trees, further suggesting they knew of its medicinal qualities. This, they theorize, may be evidence that resin from the tree might be the "tsori" medicinal compound mentioned in the Bible several times.
The researchers have also found that the tree belongs to the genus Commiphora, which belongs to the same family as frankincense and myrrh. Its species is still unknown, however, because the tree has not yet flowered, preventing study of its reproductive features.
The findings indicate that the tree represents an extinct lineage, one that once populated the region. It is not known why the trees went extinct.
