Flavor trip with me
Have you ever flavor-tripped (put something in your mouth and had a totally unexpected reaction)? This week I explore the science behind flavor-tripping with miracle fruit.
In my hand, I hold a precious little red fruit. It is petite, measuring only about 3/4 inches in length and a quarter inch in width. The shape is oval, but each end has a distinct point. As I examine it, I notice that it contains a single seed, similar in size to a coffee bean. The fruit's skin is smooth and firm to the touch, yielding slightly when I gently squeeze it.
Curious, I pop the fruit into my mouth. At first, the taste is not particularly noteworthy. But as I bite into it, the juice spills over my tongue, creating a fizzy, effervescent sensation. Slowly, a hint of sweetness emerges, tingling my taste buds. However, the real magic occurs when I experiment with unusual food pairings, such as sour cream, vinegar, or lemon juice. These tart and tangy flavors suddenly transform into an explosion of sweetness, tricking my brain in the most delightful way. This is the incredible power of miracle fruit!
Relevance to Health
The harmful effects of consuming high amounts of sugar and sugar-sweetened foods have become a significant concern for public health. Consuming too many added sugars through foods and beverages can lead to chronic health challenges such as obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Extensive research has been conducted in academic and industrial scientific settings to explore potential sweetener alternatives to sugar. Some have investigated the sweetening properties of miracle fruit in hopes of developing it as a healthy sweetener alternative.
However, miracle fruit is not just a sweetener! The flesh of its fruit is packed with Vitamin C and phenolics, giving it a high antioxidant capacity. In Ghana, in addition to using fruit pulp as a sweetener, the roots are used to treat pains of the waist, and the leaves to treat measles.
Botanical Origins
The scientific name of the miracle fruit is Synsepalum dulcificum, and it is a member of the Sapotaceae family. This is the same family where we can find other delightful edible fruits, like mamey, star apple, and sapote. Miracle fruit is a shrub with dense, dark green smooth leaves that can grow between 6-15 feet in height. Its flowers are white and the fruits red. Although this popular plant is now available online in various forms, including whole fruit, fruit extract, and even the whole plant, it originated in West Africa.
The common English name of this plant includes miracle fruit, miracle berry, miraculous berry, and sweet berry. In West Africa, where it originates, it is known as agbayun, taami, asaa, and ledidi. It is important to note, however, that the common names "miracle fruit" and "miracle berry" are shared with two entirely different plant species that can also alter the perception of sweetness in foods: Gymnema sylvestre in the Apocynaceae family and Thaumatococcus daniellii in the Marantaceae family. We’ll revisit these fascinating species in a future newsletter.
The use of Synsepalum dulcificum in West Africa was documented by a European explorer in 1725 who noticed that local people often chewed fresh fruit before consuming their meals, which usually consisted of sour fermented foods. Even today, in West Africa, the fruit is still widely used to sweeten sour acidic foods and beverages such as palm wine, and it is frequently cultivated in household gardens.
Pharmacology of Flavor
The secret behind the miracle fruit's sweetness is the presence of a unique glycoprotein called miraculin. When the fruit is crushed and held in the mouth, the miraculin is released and makes contact with the tongue. Under acidic conditions (e.g., with citrus/citric acid, vinegar/acetic acid, sour dairy or pickled veggies/lactic acid) the miraculin can interact with the taste buds and bind to the sweet receptor cells on the tongue, activating them and releasing a sweet signal to the brain.
As miraculin binds to the taste cell receptors next to the sweet receptor site, the receptor membrane changes shape due to the presence of protons from the acidic foods. This, in turn, allows the sugar portion of the miraculin glycoprotein molecule to bind to the sweet receptor site, resulting in an intensely sweet sensation! It's fascinating because the miraculin molecule has no taste, yet it can stimulate a sweetness estimated to be 400,000 times sweeter than sucrose!
Consuming the miracle fruit on its own can elicit a slightly sweet response due to the mild acidity of the fruit itself. This effect is magnified with intensely acidic foods (especially citrus or vinegar). The result can last until the miraculin is diluted and washed away by the natural saliva produced in the mouth.
Join the experience
I love this video featuring my friend and fellow ethnobotanist, Dr. Nat Bletter. He shared the fun experience of a miracle fruit taste test with visitors to the New York Botanical Garden. This will give you a better idea of the flavor-tripping experience.
If you’d like to try it yourself, take a fresh, frozen, or dehydrated miracle into your mouth. This is the brand I use in my classes for students to try. I like these because they are dry and can be stored longer.
Once you have the fruit, crush it slightly by chewing with your front teeth until the juices seep out and roll over your tongue. Patience is key here! Allow the miraculin some time, at least a full minute or two. If you’re using the whole fruit, you’ll be able to detect when it begins working by the mild sweetness you can sense from the light acidity of the fruit itself.
Next, take a slice of lemon and put it into your mouth. Squeeze and suck on the juice. You’ll note the fantastic flavor of the most delicious lemonade you’ve ever had! And all without the adverse health effects of added sugars. You can also experiment with other sour foods in your fridge. One of my personal favorites is sour cream. With the benefit of miracle fruit, it tastes like creamy sweetened ice cream to me! Bon Appetit!
Yours in health, Dr. Quave
Cassandra L. Quave, Ph.D. is a disabled writer, speaker, podcast host, wife, mother, explorer, ethnobotanist, and professor at Emory University School of Medicine. She teaches college courses and leads a group of research scientists studying medicinal plants to find new life-saving drugs from nature. She hosts the Foodie Pharmacology podcast and writes the Nature’s Pharmacy newsletter to share the science behind natural medicines. To support her effort, consider a paid or founding subscription, with founding members receiving an autographed 1st edition hardcover copy of her book, The Plant Hunter.