North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dr. Chiranjit Parmar" <parmarch@gmail.com>]

Dear Nafexers,

 

The same article was forwarded to us in Rarefruits mail group too.  Here is the reply sent by me to the Group in resonse to that article.

 

May be some of you also find it interesting.

 

C. PARMAR

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dr. Chiranjit Parmar <parmarch@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 31, 2007 5:30 PM
Subject: About effect of miracle fruit.
To: rarefruit@yahoogroups.com

 

Dear all,

 

I read the interesting article on Miracle fruit published in the Wall Street Journal that was forwarded to the Group by Oscar.

 

The article appears to state that Miracle fruit can TURN of the sour tasting substances into sweet tasting.  I do not think it is like that. I tasted this fruit first at Fairchild Botanical Garden and then at a friend's home garden at Miami, Florida.  I think some ingredients contained in the pulp temporarily desensitize those taste buds of the tongue which perceive sour taste.  The effect is for 40-60 minutes.  So during that period, one cannot feel the sour taste contained in the fruit.  At Fairchild, where I was taken by Warren Condon, we tried some citrus fruit.  It tasted sweet.  But it was not because the citric acid had been conveted into some sweet tasting substance, but the tongue had stopped perceiving the sour taste of the acid.  Most citrus fruits contain some sugars too.  The sweetness is due to the presence of those sugars.  This sweetness was earlier dominated by the sourness of the high acid content.

 

At other places, we tried some apples after eating a miracle fruit.  These tasted flatly sweet.

 

So I do not think that Miracle fruit can be used to develop some sweetener like saccharin or as contained in the leaves of Stevia.

 

We have one vine GUDMAR (Gymnema sylvestre) growing in the forests of Central India. If one chews 2-3 leaves (fresh or dried) of this plant, one does not taste sweet for one hour.  If you put a cube of sugar in your mouth after that, it tastes like a lump of sand.

 

Another fruit capable of changing the taste is amla (Emblica officinalis).  If you drink water after eating one amla fruit, the water tastes sweet.  The effect, however, remains only for 2-3 minutes.  Amla, otherwise is not very palatable due to its sour and astringent taste.  But it tastes good after some time.  So in India say, that the real value of a wise person's advice and the real taste of amla are known only after some time and not immediately.

 

Best regards,

Very truly yours,

Dr. Chiranjit Parmar
186/3 Jail Road
Mandi  HP  175001 INDIA
www.lesserknownindianplants.com

-- 
Best regards,

Very truly yours,

Dr. Chiranjit Parmar
186/3 Jail Road
Mandi  HP  175001 INDIA
www.lesserknownindianplants.com