The Richardella dulcifica berry of West Africa (Kwaku Chintoh)

Molecular gastronomists, scientists and dieters alike can now sink their teeth into West Africa’s miracle berry with knowledge of how the tiny fruit can make sour taste sweet.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo discovered that the miraculin protein of the berries of the Richardella dulcifica plant bind strongly to sweet taste buds, activating them only once submerged in an acidic environment. Thus, after eating one of these berries, sour acidic foods--like limes--taste overwhelmingly sweet, and drown out any sourness.

Locals had been enjoying the berries’ flavor-flipping properties for centuries, but miraculin had not been exported until the late 1960s.

They are now sold online in the form of tablets as a culinary novelty, but Keiko Abe, (lead researcher at the University of Tokyo team), believes they may be of use as an alternative mode of sweetening for diabetics and people struggling with obesity.

From Wired Magazine:

The researchers used a system of cultured cells that let them test human taste receptors at various levels of acidity and alkalinity. They found that miraculin binds strongly to the sweet taste buds (specifically hT1R2-hT1R3) but — unlike sugar or aspartame — doesn’t activate them at a neutral pH. Introduce acid, though, and the protein shifts shape in a way that “turns on” the taste bud, creating a sensation of ultra-sweet that drowns out the sour…

The miraculin also toys with sweet, sugary food in interesting ways. Drop a load of aspartame after popping a miracle berry tablet and the miraculin represses your sweet receptors, making sweet foods taste bland. But in a slightly more acidic environment, the receptor’s response skyrockets, making aspartame taste sweeter than ever though possible.

Reach reporter Makena Hudson here.