The Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is known for its miraculous berry.
When eaten, this berry causes sour foods (like a slice of lime) to taste sweet like lemonade. It also causes bitter foods to taste more palatable.
The effect is due to a molecule in the plant called “miraculin“. This molecule binds to the taste buds on your tongue. The effect lasts 30-60 minutes — it wears off when the miraculin is washed out of the mouth by salivation.
The miracle berry itself tastes mildly sweet, and it has low sugar content.
You can find Miracle Fruit powder on Amazon. I recommend using the powder rather than the tablets — the tablets are grainy and don’t dissolve easily.
You can also find whole miracle fruit berries and seeds.
This article describes the use of Miracle Fruit in dieting.
Two More “Miracle Fruits”
There are two other species of plant that have similar effects — Gymnema sylvestre — called “sugar destroyer” — makes sweet perception disappear — and Thaumatococcus daniellii — called “serendipity berry” — makes foods taste sweet).
This is an amazing berry. I wish I can grab some soon. I think this is an awesome fruit and can really be costly.
Hi, interesting post. Did you know that, although unusual berries fell into the hands of scientists back in the first half of the 18th century, it was possible to isolate pure miraculin from the fruits only in the 60s of the last century? This substance acts on the human body as follows. Once in the tongue, miraculin acts on the taste buds in such a way that they become supersensitive to the sweet taste. But this magic happens only in an acidic environment. Therefore, a slice of lemon, in which in small amounts, but still there is natural sugar, once in the mouth, is perceived as very sweet, and the acid does not manifest itself in any way. Good luck!
Hello, very interesting. The first component of good taste is varietal characteristics: you need to look for table varieties. The second component is the sun. The number of sunny days during the ripening of berries can dramatically affect their taste: if there is a lot of sun, then even berries of a technical purpose will become sweet. The third component is the highest degree of ripeness. Berries make a strong jump in sugar content not on the day of complete reddening, but after another 2-3 hangings on the bush, when they darken characteristically, they are made of red burgundy and raspberry. Usually, the berries are picked as soon as they turn red, and at this time they still do not have a full varietal taste. Good luck!