Miracle Fruit Fans

Miracle Fruit - makes sour taste sweet

The miracle fruit, or miracle berry, is a berry plant native to Ghana in west Africa. Once eaten, this small red berry makes sour foods like lemons, grapefruits, and limes taste sweet. Many who have tried the miracle fruit say a lemon tastes like a piece of lemon drop candy.

The Latin name for miracle fruit is Sideroxylon dulcificum, but it is also known as Synsepalum dulcificum. In addition to growing in its native west Africa, it has also been successfully cultivated in Florida, Hawaii, South America, and Australia. The plant grows in bushes up to 20 feet (6.1 m) high in its native habitat, but usually does not grow higher than ten feet in cultivation. The plant typically produces two crops a year, after the end of the rainy season. This evergreen plant, which produces small red berries the size of a coffee bean, also produces delicate white flowers that can be seen year round. The miracle fruit is highly perishable and must be eaten within 2-3 days once picked.

This exotic tropical berry contains an active glycoprotein molecule, with some trailing carbohydrate chains, called miraculin. When the fleshy part of the fruit is chewed, 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 theory is that the effect may be caused by miraculin distorting the shape or covering the sweetness receptors “so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things”. This effect can last from 15 minutes to 2 hours for some.