Sweet Relief - The Treechangers Growing Miracle Berries to Help Cancer Patients Taste Again

Eat one of these berries, then try a slice of lemon. Something extraordinary will have happened - your lemon will now taste like sweet lemonade.

Miracle berries, a native plant of central and west Africa have a protein that temporarily bonds to our sweet taste receptors and renders sour, sweet. The effects last around an hour.

There's an interesting back story as to why these berries, or the active ingredient, miraculin was never commericially developed instead of artificial sweeteners such as aspartme, (imagine the implications for the treatment of obesity!) but in this story for The Guardian, I talk to the owners of one of only 7 commercial miracle berry farms in the world about a different application. Chris Beckwith and Karen Peirera are hoping that their berries may help people with dysgeusia, an altered or impaired sense of taste - often the result of medication or treatments such as radiation therapy.