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”.
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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.
used in perfume, incense, cataract medicine
“I hear you’re having trouble seeing. Put this perfume in your eye.”
Well. It can’t all be snake oil.
I mean people get suspicious of snake oil literally cures… like… everything…
The funny thing is that actual chinese snake oil was incredibly effective at alleviating things like joint pain or some skin conditions. It has higher concentrations of omega 3s than fish oil and has even been shown to help mice learn mazes faster.
That’s why grifters selling fake medicine all claimed it was snake oil - people already wanted snake oil because they knew it worked.
Eyes aspirin suspiciously…pain reduction, anti-inflammatory, blood thinner, fever reduction. All-in-one package?
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.
Yes, willow bark is incredible!
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.
You’re generally supposed to make tea from the bark. Eating it would not be pleasant.
So you’re saying the bark is worse if you bite?
Yes, historical medicin was so good, lets work our ass off to recreate it…
It may have useful organic compounds. I’m mostly interested because it could be a nice incense
Many pharmaceuticals origate as natural remedies. You think they just came up with synthetic drugs out of thin air?
No, but the process to identify the ones that work is all part of the modern medicine. Before that, placebo and lack of scientific methods made it impossible to separate a working substance from snake oil.
That’s how I feel every time someone touts “traditional Chinese medicine.” Sure, ancient peoples knew about certain cures… they also didn’t understand basic concepts like viruses.
What do you call alternative medicine that has been proven to work?
medicine
Exactly. My dad had and I have a painful nerve condition called trigeminal neuralgia. My dad was desperate to try anything, so he tried acupuncture. I asked him if it helped with the pain and he told me, “no, but the acupuncturist said it did.” And then I asked him what it felt like, and he said, “it felt like someone stuck a lot of needles in my face.”
My dad has lingering (in fact, worsened now that he’s getting older) pain and contortions and his foot that was nearly severed when he was a teenager. He’s very much not into alternative medicine and that sort of thing, but he finally decided to try acupuncture about two years ago. He says it helped. Only thing that has helped.
I’m still skeptical, but I’m a little bit less skeptical because he’s the sort to be skeptical of it as well.
For people who hate the greed of the pharma industry, it’s really amazing to see just how little logic it takes to destroy their arguments:
You know how we know ground-up rhino horn doesn’t cure your dick problems? Because Pfizer or GlaxoSmithKline or Bayer aren’t spending billions on rhino sanctuaries.
Articles like this really float my boat! It reminds me a bit of the discovery of the Wollemi Pine in Australia.
Jumping in to share another article. Silphium may have been rediscovered!
From what I understand, that is highly contested.
Silphium (also known as laserwort or laser; Ancient Greek: σίλφιον, sílphion) is an unidentified plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine.[
Hell yeah laserwort
Thanks! I hadn’t heard about that one. Here another article on it. Wow.
Ah, okay. That is a striking looking vine, but nothing is mentioned about it being tasty, and it’s genetically related to other Central Asian plants, according to a study cited on Wikipedia.
Nooo! Amazing if true.
Unfortunately this appears to be an archive of a paywall.
Sorry! Worked fine for me. I’ll see if I can’t put a different link up
It’s alright, someone else already did. I’m skeptical, it sounds like there’s genetic evidence it’s of central Asian origin.
As a perfume nerd I’d love to know what this smells like, and when it’ll be used to create a new niche fragrance
perfume nerd
TIL
There are several active and very passionate communities online including Fragrantica and Basenotes…things can get incredibly nerdy when discussing perfume, believe it or not 😀
There’s also a fragrance community here on lemmy but I think it’s all but dead now…
Neat. Anyone with a passion for specialized knowledge (assuming they don’t do anything unethical obviously) has my respect.
I’d love to know […] when it’ll be used to create a new niche fragrance
Easy Satan. Let’s not kill it off again after some vapid Kardashian promotes it.
“Earthy. Sandy. dreamy. Hugo Pharaoh for your king or queen. Available at Macy’s and all fine retailers today. As seen on Kardashiana; season 3 extruding now.”
Seed companies trying to say you can use seeds you bought last year…
I did the same thing with the ancient seed in Stardew Valley
The cookie options on that site are fucked up.
There’s a Stardew Valley joke here somewhere
