'Methuselah' tree grows from ages-old seed

The 4-foot-tall sapling looks just like any other young date palm. But the tree, growing in a laboratory in Jerusalem, is anything but ordinary. Named "Methuselah" by one of its cultivators, the sapling grew from a 2,000-year-old seed - the oldest scientifically dated seed to ever be germinated.

In a study reported last week in the journal Science, a team of Israeli researchers confirmed the seed's age using radiocarbon dating, which determines age by measuring levels of a type of carbon found in all living organisms that decays at a specific rate.

The Methuselah seed, named after the oldest person in the Bible, was recovered 40 years ago, along with other seeds, from an archeological dig at Masada, an ancient stronghold where nearly 1,000 Jewish zealots are said to have committed suicide rather than be captured by Roman soldiers around AD 70.

The seeds sat in a drawer until 2005, when Israeli scientist Dr. Sarah Sallon procured them for study. She and botanist Elaine Solowey planted three seeds and held their breath. Eight weeks later, the first shoots poked through the soil.

"Elaine called and said, 'The earth has cracked in one of the flower pots. Something is growing,' " recalls Sallon, a pediatric gastroenterologist who led the study. Sallon also serves as director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center, which she started 13 years ago after becoming ill in India with a severe intestinal illness that only an herbal potion from a local doctor could cure.

The herbs did more than restore Sallon's health. Since then, she has spent more than a decade studying the medicinal properties of plants, most of which are found in the Middle East. Many of the region's plants historically noted for healing properties are extinct. Such was the case with the Judea date palm, until Methuselah. Sallon and her colleagues are waiting now to see whether the tree will produce fruit in another few years. If Methuselah turns out to be female, the scientists could use it to grow more Judea date palms.

"That this plant is doing so well is wonderful," says Jane Shen-Miller, a research biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Until this latest study, the oldest germinated seed was a sacred lotus tree grown by Shen-Miller, which in 2005 was reported to be 1,300 years old.

Studies of ancient seeds such as these could give scientists a look at mechanisms that protect the seeds for thousands of years. Shen-Miller is particularly interested in understanding how these ancient seeds repair age-related cellular damage, which they must do to sprout.

Beyond the scientific advances that studies of ancient seeds might provide, Sallon notes the potential for medicinal uses of plants grown from these seeds. That was, after all, what inspired Sallon to start this research in the first place.

She and her colleagues have a plantation of about 300 plant species that they hope will yield remedies for malaria, bacterial infections, even cancer. History has recorded many instances of these and other plants' use for medical treatment, Sallon says, noting that religious tomes such as the Bible, Koran and Talmud offer some of the best evidence of plants' medicinal uses over the ages. These texts are also a reminder of the spiritual meaning many plants hold for cultures around the world. Take, for example, the Judea palm now growing in her lab.

"This tree once had enormous significance as a symbol of life and peace," Sallon says. "And it can again."