Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #605

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Mystery Tree Grown From 1,000-Year-Old Seed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPbeHIrsvEQ
Story by Samyarup Chowdhury
Scientists in the capi- tal city of
Jerusalem, Israel, have grown a 10-foot- tall tree from a 1,000- year-old seed discov- ered in the 1980s.
Knewz.com has learned that the mys- tery tree sprouted from the seed within five weeks of plant- ing.
However, the process of bringing
the ancient seed to life has taken over a decade, according to the team of scientists behind the miracle. The 1,000-year-old seed from which the tree grew was exca- vated from a cave in the Judean Desert in Israel in the late 1980s.
Dr. Sarah Sallon of
the Hadassah Medical Centre, the founder of the Louis L. Borick
Natural Medicine Res earch Center
in Jerusalem, created a research team and planted the seed years after its discov- ery.
It has been reported that it took the research team a total of 14 years to plant and grow the tree to its present height.
The fully-grown tree has been named “Sheba” by the team of researchers and towers at a height of 10 feet.
According to reports, scientists have been able to perform DNA, chemical, and radio- carbon analyses of the tree, now that it has fully grown.
Research into the mystery tree has revealed that the seed it came from dates back to some- where between 993 and 1202 C.E.
“It likely survived from a now-extinct popula- tion of trees that existed in the Southern Levant, a region comprising modern-day
Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, and is the first of its kind to be found there,” it has been reported.
According to the research done on Sheba, which
was published in the journal Communicatio ns Biology on September 10, Sheba belongs to a species of trees that could be the source of “tsori,” a resinous extract reported to have heal- ing properties men- tioned in the Bible— Genesis, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
“The substance is linked with the histori- cal region of Gilead, which sits to the east of the Jordan River between the Yarmuk River and the north- ern end of the Dead Sea,” it was reported.
“Now, having revived Sheba, the team thinks it has finally unraveled the mys- tery behind Biblical
tsori.”
The research con- ducted by Dr. Sallon’s team identified Sheba as belonging to the genus Commiphora, which belongs to the family of myrrh and frankincense—which were both mentioned in the Bible as well.
The published paper read: “A seed recov- ered during archaeo- logical excavations of a cave in the Judean desert was germinat- ed, with radiocarbon analysis indicating an age of 993 CE– 1202 calCE.”
“DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis identified the seedling as belonging to the angiosperm genus Commiphora Jacq., sister to three Southern African Commiphora species, but unique from all other species sam- pled to date.”
“The germinated seedling was not closely related to Commiphora species commonly harvested for their fragrant oleo- resins including Commiphora gilead- ensis (L.) C.Chr., can- didate for the locally extinct “Judean Balsam” or “Balm of Gilead” of antiquity,” the paper further mentioned.
Since the 10-foot tree
has not flowered or yielded fruit, scientists have not been able to pinpoint the species to which Sheba belongs.
It has
been reported that chemical analysis of the leaves and resin from the tree revealed that it is rich in penta- cyclic triterpenoids, which are biologically active compounds with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer prop- erties.
Scientists also found that the leaves and stem of the tree are high in squalene, described as “a natu- ral, oily substance with antioxidant and skin-smoothing prop- erties.”
“We believe these findings support our second hypothesis, that ‘Sheba’ ... may represent an extinct (or at least extirpated) [lineage] once native to this region, whose resin ‘tsori’ mentioned in Biblical texts was valuable, associated with healing but not described as fra- grant,” the research paper mentioned.
“If Judean Balsam survives today as an extant Commiphora species there remains the possibility that sci- entists have not yet recognized it.”
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