Found only in West Africa, once plentiful but now reduced to very small area, this strange berry isn't new to the world. But it's been re-introduced to the science community for what it can do in this age of obesity.

This berry, also known as Miracle Fruit, tricks the brain by binding to the tongue. Its natural component basically tries very hard to hold on to any and every little bit of sweetness from acidic molecules. And the result is that your brain notices sweet taste from something that should not be sweet. Far fetched, you say? A demonstration was held yesterday by Science Friday segment from National Public Radio (NPR) where three announcers tried various different foods, after coating their tongues with this strange fruit.

Three announcers first coated their tongues by bitting into the berry. First to taste was a plain lemon slice. All three shouted, "mmm, it's like lemonade!" Second taste test was with cheese which did not altered the taste. As they concluded, one read out that this Miracle Fruit can make a slice of bologna taste just like a cheese cake--they all laughed.

The active ingredient is called, miraculin oddly enough It only turns any sour food to taste sweet. Imagine, instead of drinking lemonade, which is doused with tons of sugar, just having plain lemon will give you the illusion of having a tall glass of cool lemonade. Think of the sugar you don't have to add to your drink. Miracle Fruit isn't a sweet additive but if any sour food that you enjoy can be turned to taste sweet, wouldn't you rather have the same pleasure but cut the sugar?

Additional reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit

Wouldn't that be quite expensive?

I was thinking, perhaps you can use miraculin and lemon juice in a suspension so that the miraculin floats to the top and the lemon juice sinks. that way, when someone drinks it, they drink the miraculin which coats to their tongue and then drink the lemon juice which will taste like lemonade.

Of course, that wouldn't work with lemonade because the amount of acid the customer will consume would spark lawsuits.

Try cakes. Coat with miraculin so the eater (if that's a word) gets the miraculin and then finishes a plain cake thinking that it's a sweet one.

Perhaps a food-loving user could elaborate?

That's very interesting, I think it would be quite expensive though. One would think that it would be something that is genetically modified, but it isn't. It would be cool to have someone share their thoughts with us who had tried the berry .

First let me just say that wikipedia cannot always be a very reliable source since anyody can ome on and just put any thing they want on it, but in this case I am pretty sure it is 100% legit. hat is really awesome that your able to trick your mind like that. I guarantee that millions of diabetics who are not allowed to have sugar are now able to realize how it tastes again, and enjoy it once more. really more and more people should get their hands inb thius because thuis can help millions of people who are not only addicited to sugar, but eat it a lkot. Now they can eat thing sthjat are more beneficial to their bodies and believe that what theyt are eating is what thet wanted to to eating the first place. So I think more and more of these berries should be shippe to neighboring countries so ordinary people will be able to enjoy the sweetenss of sugar without actually getting the negatives of this sweet deliquent.

We should probably be cloning and mass producing this stuff then. Am I the only one who thinks it would end up being the greatest condiment of all time?

Now remember, this is not the sugar substitute or the sugar additive. This only works with any sour tasting food. As I mentioned it before Science Friday segment experimented with cheese and found to be the same taste.

So...anything citrus-y....maybe soda...what else has a sour taste?

Ooh, it would be good for body shots! Slice of lime, pinch of salt...

Wow could this actually be true, if so this is great for people who love sugar as they can have sugar without the bad side of it. I really wish i could try it out but this is great and it can be used in many treatments like many drugs.

I tried some of the fruit a few weeks ago. It really works and is pretty amazing. Here is a list of the foods I tried and what they tasted like.

http://recueilli.blogspot.com/2007/03/miracle-fruit.html

Hope it helps anyone trying it for the first time.