Tree’s resin, called ’tsori’ in Biblical texts, was highly prized in ancient world for its used in perfume, incense, cataract medicine, embalming agents, and antidotes

The resin of a tree grown from an ancient seed found in a desert cave near Jerusalem could be the source of a medicinal balm mentioned in the Bible, a new study has found.

The strange seed, about 2cm long, was discovered in a Judean Desert cave in the late 1980s, and dated to between 993AD and 1202AD. After years of attempting to grow the plant, researchers have identified the sapling nicknamed “Sheba”.

Researchers suspected the “Sheba” tree to be a candidate for the “Judean Balsam” or “Balm of Judea”, which was cultivated exclusively in the desert region of southern Levant during Biblical times.

The Judean Balsam has been extensively described in the literature from Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and Post-Classical periods between the 4th century BC and the 8th century AD.

  • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Eyes aspirin suspiciously…pain reduction, anti-inflammatory, blood thinner, fever reduction. All-in-one package?

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Basically all medication has side effects.

      Aspirin works by blocking production of cyclooxygenase, which, causes platelets not to produce thromboxane A2, effectively permanently rendering affected platelets useless.

      COX also reduces productions of prostaglandins which mediates pain- basically, causing your nerves to pay attention to pain signals. (I’m sure some one who’s actually a doctor or nurse is swearing at me by now…) and also triggers more inflammation.

      COX also increases production of PGE2 (another prostaglandin,) which is what triggers the fever response.

      This is how most NSAIDs work, though they each have other side effects, that are different from the others.

      • BalooWasWahoo@links.hackliberty.org
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        1 month ago

        doctor or nurse is swearing at me by now

        The people who interact with patients think you’re great. Give people some info and make it easy to understand. It’s the Ph.D. fella who did his thesis on cellular signaling focusing on nociceptor differences in distal/medial loci.

        >.>

        <.<

    • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      To add even more nonsense, you can get it naturally from the soft Underbark of willow trees.Literally eating this bark makes pain go away.