A species of red berry native to Africa and now grown in Florida is helping cancer patients reclaim the ability to enjoy food thanks to the berry’s properties which bear a “miracle” moniker.
“Miracle berry” is known as àgbáyun in its West African home. Scientifically, it’s designated Synsepalum dulcificum, with ‘dulcificum’ referring to its unique ability to turn sour foods sweet.
So iconic and striking is the effect it has on those who consume it, the active ingredient inside the plant’s fruit is a glycoprotein that’s literally called miraculin.
Studies investigating this compound report that at low pH (resulting from ingestion of sour foods) miraculin binds proteins and becomes able to activate the sweet receptors, resulting in the immediate perception of sweet taste.
What does this have to do with cancer? Proper nutrition is important to any cancer battle, but this can often become difficult because of something called “chemo mouth.”
“What patients report with chemotherapy is that they may develop a bothersome taste that could be described as metallic, rotten food,” said Dr. Mike Cusnir, an oncologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center who has led several initial studies into using miracle berries to make food more palatable for chemotherapy patients.
Dr. Cusnir told CBS News Miami that the ‘miracle’ in miracle berries doesn’t have anything to do with cancer, nor any method of preventing the damage chemotherapy does to the body. What it can do is restore one of the great joys of life—eating—to those who’ve lost it to chemotherapy drugs.
Julie Ascen has been battling lymphoma for a year, and told CBS that she considers the miracle berry to be just that: a miracle.
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“It is one of those miracles that, if you have this disease, you want to live your life and not have it control you. And this lets it not control me; I can control myself.”
The miraculin glycoprotein removes the chemo mouth sensation for 30-40 minutes, allowing patients to eat a meal and enjoy the flavors again.
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Florida, says one miracle berry grower, is the only place in the US where this fruit grows well, as it enjoys the hot and humid conditions of the plant’s native West African forest home.
Hardly reserved for cancer patients, miracle berry is typically sold in freeze dried form, as the miraculin degrades quickly after the fruit’s separation from the plant. You can even buy it on Amazon. It makes for a fantastic party trick—eat one, then eat a lemon, and watch as everyone uniformly agrees that it tastes like an orange.
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