Scientists finally uncover the secret of the mysterious fruit that changes human taste

There is a small fruit in the world that can turn sour things into sweet things. It is called miracle fruit. It grows in tropical and humid places such as Africa, and is also cultivated in small quantities in Yunnan, Guangdong, Hainan and other places in my country.

Miracle fruit is also called "taste-correcting fruit" or "taste-changing fruit". The fruit tree belongs to the evergreen shrub or small tree of the Sapotaceae family. It has obovate green leaves, small white flowers, and small red berries. Generally, it will bloom and bear fruit 2-3 years after planting. The fruit is oval, weighing about 1 gram each, and somewhat resembles fresh wolfberry fruit. Unlike ordinary fruit trees, miracle fruit can bloom and bear fruit three times a year, and even have a small amount of flowers and fruits throughout the year. For this reason, it is also called "four-season flower fruit".

Peel off the scarlet skin, and you will find a large seed and a thin layer of white flesh. Taste the thin, tender, juicy flesh, which tastes slightly sweet, just like any other fruit. Don't underestimate this small berry, it has a miraculous effect. If you eat one or two miracle fruits, and then eat sour fruits such as lemons and hawthorns 10 minutes later, they will all taste sweet, and the sourer the fruit, the sweeter it tastes.

In short, the original taste of all sour fruits will become sweet after eating it, even pickled sour beans and pickled radishes. It is said that in its native Africa, sellers often sell miracle fruit together with sour fruits. In this way, even if people eat sour and astringent fruits, they will taste as sweet as apples and pineapples.

Why can miracle fruit change people's taste? This has been a mystery for hundreds of years. In recent years, scientists have finally uncovered the secret. It turns out that miracle fruit contains a taste-changing protein, also known as miracle fruit protein or miracle fruit element. This substance itself has no sweetness or very little sweetness. When the fruit pulp is chewed in the mouth, its solution can temporarily change people's taste, turning sour taste into sweetness, and it can last for a long time.

The reason why people feel sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty when eating is because there are corresponding taste buds on the tongue. Miracle fruit taste-changing protein is very strong. As long as the mouth is exposed to 2 micrograms of solution, it can maintain sweetness for more than half an hour. During this period of time, other sour foods will taste sweet when eaten. But after two hours, this sweetness will slowly disappear. Lemons still taste like lemons, and hawthorns taste like hawthorns.

The mysterious effect of miracle fruit has attracted people's attention. Nowadays, scientists are studying the extraction of flavor-changing proteins from miracle fruit to use as flavor-changing sweeteners for food, beverages and medicines. It is reported that 50-200 mg of flavor-changing proteins can be extracted from each kilogram of miracle fruit.

Diabetics cannot eat too much sugar, but eating some processed protein products before eating can satisfy their desire for sweets; most Chinese medicines are bitter, but eating some processed protein products before taking the medicine will make them less bitter. In some places in West Africa, miracle fruit is crushed and made into miracle fruit pills for sale. Its function is the same as that of fresh fruit, and locals often use it to adjust the taste of food.

(The author Tan Yibin is a member of the China Science Writers Association)