The miracle berry

[glenc (Glen)]

It's not astronomy but it is a very interesting story.

"Imagine an extract from a berry that would make sour things taste sweet and help you lose weight. Then imagine not being allowed to take it. The world is getting fatter. One billion people are overweight, and 300 million of those are clinically obese.
The search is always on for replacements for those things that, eaten in excess, make us obese - fatty and sugary foods. There is no miracle pill that can replace either. Nearly four decades ago one man came close to providing a tablet that could reduce our love of sugar. In the 1960s, Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student, encountered the miracle berry, an African fruit which turns sour tastes to sweet..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7367548.stm

[Ric]

Hi Glen, a very interesting article indeed. That would have been a very handy little berry a few years back when I was found to be diabetic and had to cut out all sugar.

Cheers

[Suzy_A]

I have a MB bush growing in my garden - you can sometimes find them in a plant nursery. The berries change your sour taste buds (for a short period of time) so they taste sweet instead. You can then happily munch on a lemon! Rots your teeth however if you do it too much...

Another plant is Lippia dulcis - Aztec Sweet Herb Plant - it has a super sweet taste - like eating a sacharine tablet. There are some of these in the Sydney Botanical Garden.