Miracle fruit is known by many other names such as flavour berry, miracle berry and magical berry to name but a few.
It's an evergreen shrub found in West Africa and was first documented in 1725 by the French explorer Chevalier des Marchais.
By 1852, a botanist, Dr. W. F. Danieall stationed at an outpost in West Africa, published an article in the Pharmaceutical Journal in which he dubbed Synsepalum dulcificum the miraculous berry.
By the early 20th century, David Fairchild, a botanist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture, was the first to bring miracle fruit to the U.S. from its native Africa in 1968.
The main driving force behind bringing miracle fruit products to market was the Miralin Company, founded in the early seventies by Don Emery and his business partner Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student.
Co-operating with the Food And Drug Administration, the Miralin Company spent many months of testing and a considerable dollar investment to deliver miracle fruit products to the consumer.
Without warning, on the eve of the company's launch in 1974, the FDA classified miracle fruit as a food additive and denied its approval for general use in the manufacture of miracle fruit products.
Throughout 2008 miracle fruit has enjoyed extensive world-wide media coverage resulting in a revival of the miracle fruit berry and miracle fruit products being freely available to purchase via the internet in tablet, powder and fresh fruit form.
Exhaustive tests of the miracle fruit berry on animals and humans has concluded that miracle fruit is safe for consumption.
The secret to miracle fruit products taste changing properties is a glycoprotein called Miraculin that attaches itself to your taste buds.
One miracle fruit berry, half a tablet or a small quantity of miracle fruit powder is enough to experience the effects of Miraculin.
Eating larger quantities of miracle fruit products does not appear to increase the intensity of the experience.
The flavour changing effects of the miracle fruit berry normally last from thirty minutes to two hours.
Miracle fruit tablets and pills have a shelf life of approximately one year, miracle fruit freeze dried powder around three months and fresh miracle fruit berry, just a few days.
