Miracle fruit
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| Sideroxylon dulcificum A.DC. |
A Miracle Fruit Plant, sometimes known as Miraculous Berry, (Sideroxylon dulcificum/Synsepalum dulcificum Daniell) is a plant native to Tropical West Africa. It produces 2 crops per year, after the end of the rainy season. The plant grows in bushes up to 20 feet high in its native habitat, but does not usually grow higher than 5 feet in cultivation. It is an evergreen plant that produces red berries. Although the berry itself is not sweet, they contain a protein called Miraculin, which masks the tongue's sour taste buds, causing foods such as lemons and limes to taste sweet. This effect lasts for up to 30 minutes but sometimes longer, maybe two hours. It will not however, make sweet foods taste sweeter. The Miracle fruit has been used to sweeten bitter medicines.
[edit] General Information and Cultivation
The plant prefers to have a pH as low as 4.5 to 5.8. The Miracle fruit grows well with blueberries. Position free from frost and in partial shade with high humidity. The flowers are white and are produced many months of the year.
Many attempts have been made to use the berries from this plant as a sweetener, with an idea of developing this for diabetics. However, Miraculin was denied approval for being marketed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
[edit] References and links
- The Old Sweet Lime Trick by Donna Cannon
- Five Decades with Tropical Fruit, A Personal Journey (2001) by William Francis Whitman
- Miracle berry lets Japanese dieters get sweet from sour
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