Worthy Christian News > Israel-Palestinian Conflict > Israel: Scientists are planting date trees from 2,000-year old seed

Israel: Scientists are planting date trees from 2,000-year old seed

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israeli scientists are growing fruit-bearing date trees using 2000-year-old ancient seeds from the Judean Desert and from Masada, Christian Headlines (CH) reports. Growing the trees and their fruit is part of a scientific experiment to determine how medicinal Israreli flora is, and to revive species that were available in Biblical times.

Scientists at the Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization were recently able to plant a tree that was sprouted from ancient date seed, and which was kept in a greenhouse for nine years, in the Ancient Judean Date Orchard in Kibbutz Ketura, near Israel’s Arava Desert.

Leading the project, Sarah Sallon, the Director and Founder of the Research Center said in an interview with CBN News: “We’re talking about the resurrection of and which are part of a scientific experiment. I wanted to see how medicinal the flora of Israel was and what it had been used for and so on. And then I realized that many of these species had actually disappeared. And we knew what there was, because it’s mentioned in the Bible. The Bible is our guidebook of ancient species.”

Project botanist Elaine Solowey added that a second tree from ancient seed is now being planted. “We are planting our second female date tree, who was sprouted from an ancient seed. Actually, this one came from Qumran — was found in the caves — and much to our astonishment, she also sprouted,” Solowey told CBN.

“We are going to be testing those dates in the future to see actually what they do and whether they differ from other commercial varieties of modern dates,” Solowey said.