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Berry good for Obesity?
Courtesy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit Winter really is a very berry-good time. At an otherwise barren looking time of the year, cast amidst sparse greenery, often displayed against a backdrop of cold brooding skies, Nature’s precious jewels brighten our gardens and lives with their shiny yellow-orange-red to purple berry-beads and snowball-white pearls. When everything looks to be dead or dying colourful berries have something very ‘cheerful’ about them that speaks to our erstwhile Pagan psyches too, for within them are hidden the seeds that hold the promise of renewal for the coming year. In the wild or cultivated, many of these beautiful berries are useful to our health. Among Nature’s jewels is the ‘Miracle fruit’ berry (Synsepalum dulicificum Daniell). It is the subject of the latest ‘berry buzz’ from Tokyo, Japan, where it is being promoted as a useful add-on for dieters1. Who knows, we may yet see a Dieter’s Café Society develop in the UK! More to the point, Miracle berry’s main feature ‘making everything taste sweet’ could perhaps possess some benefit towards aiding the arrestment of obesity? Discovered centuries ago, the Miracle fruit plant (Synsepalum dulicificum Daniell ex-S. Bell or Richardella dulcifica), also called ‘Sweet Berry’, grows in bushes up to 20 feet high. It is native to West Africa, producing two crops annually after the rainy season, where the berry was used to improve the taste of acidic foods.2 Back in 1978 the pigments of the holly-like berries were investigated as a potential food colourant.3 However, this new Tokyo ‘berry buzz’ started in a Japanese café called ‘Miracle Fruits Café’ through serving the berries that make Ouch-sour desserts taste sweet. The novel idea being that it offers dieters the opportunity to indulge in snacks without piling on the calories because the sour desserts contain almost no sugar.4 After chewing just one of the berries everything eaten will taste sweet, such as a lemon or even vinegar, for between 30-60 minutes - some say longer! Why has use of miraculous Miracle berry not happened in any commercial shape or form before? One practical reason is that until now miracle berries have not been widely marketed as they are easily perishable. Lately, a Japanese supplier has developed a way to freeze-dry the fruit, which allows for a steady supply of berries.5 However, the prevalent reason from a scientific view-point has been that the ‘how’ of its extraordinary ability to transform sour to sweet remains unsolved. How does it work? While the taste modifying capabilities of the fruits have been known for over a century, the active agent ‘miraculin’ is itself not sweet. It was first isolated by Japanese scientist Prof. Kenzo Kurihara, and named miraculin when he published his work in the journal ‘Science’ in 1968.6 The plant further appeared in an historical article on ‘sweeteners’ in 1976.7 The Japanese professor’s work continued, and in 1988 miraculin, a glycoprotein,8 was extracted from the fruit. It triggers ‘the sour taste converted to sweet’ action when the pulp of the fruit, which also has no distinctive taste, coats the tongue. The sequence analysis of the purified miraculin indicated that it is composed of a pure single polypeptide9 with 191 amino acid residues, and identified 20 amino-terminal amino acids. The purified miraculin also contained as much as 13.9% of sugars consisting of glucosamine,10 mannose11, galactose12, xylose13 and fucose.14 In 1992, Prof. Kurihara did a review of anti-sweet substances, sweet proteins and sweetness-inducing proteins; of these miraculin is still ‘the one’ that has the unusual property of modifying a sour taste into a sweet taste. It was at that point expected to be used as a forthcoming ‘low-calorie’ sweetener.15 What seems to have been a major stumbling block to the commercialization of Miracle berries as ‘an artificial sweetener’ par excellence has been the lack of elucidation of the working mechanism. The detailed mechanism of the modification of the taste-inducing behaviour is still unknown. It has been suggested that the miraculin molecule can change the structure of taste cells on the tongue and, as a result, the sweet receptors are activated by acids that are sour in general, which effect remains until the taste buds revert to normal. But, until the mechanism is clearly explained it remains a theory. However, recent Italian research on the taste cell-related diffuse chemosensory system16 (DCS) may give a clue to what else could be happening. In humans, the sense of taste is transduced17 by taste buds18 and is conveyed via three of the twelve cranial nerves. Therein ‘taste buds’ are referred to as ‘classic’ taste organs, but it is argued as conceivable that this is the tip of the iceberg, that there is a ‘submerged’ portion with most of the iceberg more [caudally] located in the form of solitary chemosensory cells or chemosensory clusters i.e. the taste buds are probably only the most visible portion. In other words, what you see isn’t only what you get, that there are other less obvious chemoreceptive sensors that are not visible. While taste is defined as being sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and unami (savouriness), an analogy of a deep effect upon taste could be like e.g. biting into a chili pepper; as a taste it registers as spicy ‘hot’, but the chemicals in it can act as a temporary anaesthetic in the mouth giving a ‘numbing’ sensation that has been ‘received’ by chemoreceptors and transduced to give us that ‘sensation’ – there is more than one effect going on. When it comes to the Miracle berry there is certainly something different or unusual happening between its chemicals, our chemo-reception followed by our neuro-perception messaging that can transform ‘sour to sweet’. It is a conundrum! Perhaps the popularizing of Miracle fruit’s actual use in a Tokyo café, bringing it to public attention and into public awareness, will give some impetus for researchers to find the answer to its mysterious mechanism. Meanwhile, with obesity on a roller-coaster increase, plus all the ill-health problems it stores up for the future in terms of cost to lives and funds to pay for its fallout, it is to be hoped that Miracle fruit will receive the consideration it is deserves. COMMENT Although there is no scientific evidence for it as yet, it is also said that Miracle fruit acts as an appetite stimulant for chemotherapy patients. The effects of the glycoprotein mask the metallic taste that food tends to get after chemotherapy treatment19. As most breakthroughs in research are either initially discovered by accident or start with anecdotal evidence first, it may well be that this anecdotal benefit will prove to be an important aspect of Miracle fruit’s potential use and future prospects. For gardeners and those interested to grow the plant with its lovely rose-stained leaf, either as an ornamental or to simply sample its berries, or even as a ‘conversation piece’ to sit on a sunny window-sill, the potted plant likes acid soil. It is intolerant of frost or freezing weather, but will thrive if given a place in the sun outdoors in summer.20 References: 1. ‘Miracle fruit’ yields sweets for dieters’ Associated Press, 22nd November 2005. 2. ‘Miracle fruit’ Wikipedia encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit 3. ‘Pigments of miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, Schum, as potential food colorants.’ Buckmire RE and Francis FJ. 1978 J. Food Sci. 43; 908. [Spectrophotometer measurements of the anthocyanin pigments from miracle fruit were determined. A comparison of the pigment with FD & C Red No. 2, its stability in beverages and the effect of organic acids were also studied.]4. ‘Miracle fruit’ yields sweets for dieters’ Associated Press, 22nd November 2005 – Miracle Fruits Café, Tokyo, Namco Ltd. 5. Ibid. 6. ‘Miracle fruit’ Wikipedia encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit 7. ‘A history of sweeteners – natural and synthetic.’ Inglett GE. [Historical article] J Toxicol Environ Health. 1976 Sep; 2(1):207-14. 8. Glycoprotein: is a macromolecule composed of a protein and a carbohydrate (an oligosaccharide). An oligosaccharide is a saccharide polymer containing a small number of component sugars, also known as simple sugars. 9. Polypeptide: a peptide containing 10 to more than 100 amino acids. Peptides (Greek: “digestible”), are the family of molecules formed from the linking, in a defined order, of various amino acids. ‘Complete purification and characterization of the taste-modifying protein, miraculin, from miracle fruit.’ Theerasilp S, Kurihara Y. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Education, Yokohama National University, Japan. J Biol Chem 1988 Aug 15; 263(23):11536-9. 10. Glucosamine: Amino derivative in plants and animals: an amino derivative of glucose that occurs naturally in supportive tissues and plant cell walls. Glucose: A sugar that is an important source of physiological energy. 11. Mannose: a plant sugar. 12. Galactose: a simple sugar found in lactose. Lactose: Milk sugar – a sugar comprising one glucose molecule linked to a galactose molecule; occurs only in milk e.g. cow’s milk contains about 4.7% lactose. 13. Xylose: A sugar extracted from wood or straw, used in foods for diabetics. 14. Fucose: a form of plant sugar 15. ’Characteristics of anti-sweet substances, sweet proteins, and sweetness-inducing proteins.’ Kurihara Y. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Education, Yokohama National University, Japan. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 1992; 32(3):231-52. 16. ’ The taste cell-related diffuse chemosensory system.’ Sharbati A, Osculati F. Department of Morphological-Biomedical Sciences, Section of Anatomy and Histology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie, 8, 37134 Verona, Italy. Prog Neurobiol. 2005 Mar; 75(4):295-307. 17. Transduce: is conversion of a stimulus from one form to another. In physiology, transduction is transportation of a stimuli to the nervous system. 18. Taste: “In humans, the sense of taste is transduced by the taste buds and is conveyed via three of the twelve cranial nerves. The facial nerve carries taste sensations from the anterior two thirds of the tongue; the glossopharyngeal nerve carries taste sensations from the posterior one third of the tongue while a branch o the vagus nerve carried some taste sensations from the back of the oral cavity. Information from these cranial nerves is processed by the gustatory system.” Taste buds: Small structures on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, and epiglottis that provide information about the taste of food being eaten. The human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds. The majority of taste buds on the tongue sit on raised protrusions of the tongue surface called papillae. 19. Pine Island Nursery: http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/fruitproducts_m.htm 20. ’Miracle Berry Plant’ Dr. T. Ombrello, Senior Prof. of Biology – Union County College, Cranford, NJ, USA - http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/POW/miracle_berry.htm
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