ABSTRACT
Almost all the write-ups on this plant in modern herbals include a few choice biblical quotations referring to its ritualistic use in cleansing people or places.1,2,3 These quotations are extremely mis leading, for it is very doubtful if the well-known garden herb Hyssopus officinalis L., which is now called "hyssop," has any relation whatever to the plant mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. Learned discussions regarding the identity of the biblical hyssop were underway some 250 years ago, and even then, more than eighteen different plants had been suggested.4 The plant's true iden tity will probably never be established.
