S&V - Page 117
From 1973, a Swiss criminologist began a research of pollens on the shroud, hoping to deduce the geographical places from them where the relic had travelled. Max Frei captured samples of micro-dust on the linen using special adhesive tapes. He discovered there a large variety of pollens resulting from 59 vegetable species. Twenties of these plants did not grow in Western Europe, but in Middle East, some even in Palestine. Like the wild lily Ixolirion montanum, present in Turkey, in the area of Urfa, the antique Edessa. Or Myoscyamus aureus and Onosma orientalis, two plants flowering in Jerusalem. His discoveries coincided very precisely with the supposed stages of the shroud to reach Turin from Jerusalem, via Edessa, Constantinople and France ! Except that...

Initially, several palynologists (specialists in pollens) mentioned that it was almost impossible to specify the vegetable species starting from its pollen, and that it was necessary to content oneself with identifying the kind; one could not thus be also precise on the source of these pollens.

In addition, the American micro-palaeontologist Steven Shafersman was astonished by the extraordinary preservation state of the pollens collected by Frei on an antique fabric. He admitted that the photos of pollens taken under the microscope and he showed, were in fact photos of reference, or, in a word, pollens of catalogue...

Frei died in1983 without to have ever published scientific article or photography of pollens of the shroud. Nevertheless, his work continues to be regularly quoted.

VSD - Pages 26-27
Pollens were found between fibers of fabric. The first palynologic study was led from 1973 to 1978 by the criminologist Max Frei who carried out taking away on the shroud using an adhesive tape. Too much precise in the determination of the species for somebody who was to have only an optical microscope, this study gave place to no publication, Max Frei being abruptly deceased in 1983. Then his conclusions were severely disputed.

However, recently, the Israeli researchers Avinoam Danin and Uri Baruch could recover the adhesive tape of Frei and continue his work. Their results, presented at the time of scientific congresses, confirm those of their predecessor, in particular by the description of pollens characteristic of Palestine and more precisely of the area of Jerusalem.