October 03, 2009
Have you heard about the miracle berry? I hadn't until I got the invite to the latest edition of Foodie Meet that happened on Sunday.
edit About Synsepalum Dulcificum
The miracle fruit, or miracle berry plant (Synsepalum dulcificum) produces berries that, when eaten, cause sour foods (such as lemons and limes) subsequently consumed to taste sweet. It contains miraculin, a natural protein which binds sugar molecules to the tongue rather than allowing it to dissolve and disappear. When acidic substances enter the mouth, the sugar molecules press on the sweet spots of the tongue. This process could be used to help people with conditions ranging from diabetes to obesity. It can help to combat cravings for sweet and regulate excess consumption. And unlike sugar itself, synsepalum dulcificum berries have few calories. Unlike artificial sweeteners, the berries are all-natural. Fruit cultivators also report a small demand from cancer patients since the fruit allegedly counteracts a metallic taste in the mouth that may be one of the many side effects of chemotherapy.
Other Names:Miracle Fruit, Miracle Berry, 奇迹果 (Chinese), ミラクルフルーツ (Japanese), معجزة فواكه (Arabic), Чудо фрукты (Russian), Fruit mi... All Translations
Edited by: Sheri Wetherell, Beverly Wooding
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Wikipedia
The miracle fruit, or miracle berry plant (''Synsepalum dulcificum''), produces berries that, when eaten, cause sour foods (such as lemons and limes) subsequently consumed to taste sweet. The berry, which contains active polyphenols Ancient Berry, Modern Miracle: The Sweet Benefits of Miracle Fruit published by was first documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa. Marchais noticed that local tribes picked the berry from shrubs and chewed it before meals. The plant grows in bushes up to high in its native habitat, but does not usually grow higher than ten feet in cultivation, and it produces two crops per year, after the end of the rainy season. It is an evergreen plant that produces small red berries, with flowers that are white and which are produced for many months of the year. The seeds are about the size of coffee beans. The berry itself has a low sugar content and a mildly sweet tang. It contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, this molecule binds to the tongue's taste buds, causing sour foods to taste sweet. While the exact cause for this change is unknown, one hypothesis is that the effect may be caused if miraculin works by distorting the shape of sweetness receptors "so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things". This effect lasts 15–60 minutes.
