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What fruit creates a taste illusion?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

March 4, 2004

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The miracle or miraculous fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum Daniell ex S. Bell) is a large evergreen shrub in the Sapotaceae, the sapodilla family. The shrub is native to tropical West Africa where it is variously called taami, ledidi, and asaa. The leaves are leathery and four to six inches long with eight pairs of lateral or side veins. The white flowers are small and borne in clusters in the axils (angle between the stem and the leaf) of the leaves. Oval, fleshy, tasteless, single-seeded, red berries follow flowering. The berries contain a unique glycoprotein, miraculin.

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The human tongue detects chemicals by certain taste signatures--acids (sour), sugars (sweet), salts, alkaloids (bitter and often poisonous), and amino acids (meaty taste of proteins, umami).

The sensors for these tastes, taste buds, are in clusters on the taste papillae, the individual 'bumps' on the tongue. Fungiform papillae (sweet) are at the front of the tongue, foliate papillae (sour) are on the sides, and circumvallate papillae (bitter) are at the back.

The taste buds cannot taste chemicals they are not designed to taste--sweet sensors cannot taste alkaloids, nor can salt sensors taste acids, acid sensors cannot taste sweets and the like. Flavors are a combination of individual tastes plus aromas, textures, and temperatures. And heredity makes a huge difference in what an individual interprets as flavor.

Miraculin creates a 'taste illusion'. As the berry is chewed, the miraculin spreads over the tongue. The molecules bind to sites on the fungiform papillae near the sweet taste buds. For the next 30 to 60 minutes, any acidic foods like lemons, limes, and vinegar taste mildly sour, but they have an added sweetness. In the presence of an acidic food, the miraculin molecule activates the sweet taste bud. The sweet taste bud can only present the brain with the 'illusion' that it has tasted something sweet.*

Tim Jacob with the Cardiff University School of Biosciences has a great tutorial, "The Physiology of Taste". To learn more about the ability to taste, click on the link:

http://www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/staff/jacob/teaching/sensory/taste.html

*If you try miracle fruit, do not eat too many acidic foods. The acid is still there and can give you an upset stomach and a sore mouth.

(Compiled from: A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman, Vintage Books, 1991; "Sweet taste induced by miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), LM Bartoshuk, RL Gentile, HR Moskowitz, and HL Meiselman, Physiology and Behavior, 1974; "Miracle Fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum" California Rare Fruit Growers Association; "Complete purification and characterization of the taste-modifying protein, miraculin, from the miracle fruit", S. Theerasilp and Y. Kurihara, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Aug 1988)

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Comments: 300 times sweeter than sugar. Treat as a houseplant in winter. However, it can be set outside during the summer months.

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