Between the years 1704 and 1727, a French explorer named Reynaud Des Marchais (aka Chevalier des Marchais) traveled extensively around the west coast of Africa, the West Indies, and the northwest coast of South America. Among the amazing and diverse peoples, flora, and fauna he documented over all of these years of exploring is a documentation he made in 1725 during an excursion to West Africa. Des Marchais had come across a village where the native diet consisted of only a few basic foods, none of which were very palatable. Sour porridges and soups, sour corn bread, and sour wine and fermented palm beer were the villager's main staples. Des Marchais noticed the villagers eating small red berries before eating their meals. Upon trying one himself, he discovered that the barely edible foods he was given were transformed into a sweet and delicious meal.

In the mid 19th century, the plant and its fruit were named Synsepalum dulcificum, a  member of the Sapotaceae family. The Sapotaceae family includes approximately 800 species of Evergreen trees and shrubs in approximately 65 genera. Many of these species produce edible fruits, including Sapodilla, Chicle (the origin of chewing gum), Gutta-percha (which produces a natural form of latex), and many others.

In 1852, Dr. W. F. Daniell, a botanist stationed at an outpost in West Africa, published an article in the Pharmaceutical Journal, Vol. Xl, where he dubbed the fruit the "Miraculous Berry". When word got out about the properties of the Miraculous Berry, entrepreneurs of the time realized their importance and possible commercial viability. Over the last 150 years or so, millions of dollars and uncountable hours of research have gone into the development of the Miracle Fruit into a sugar substitute, an industry that would have been worth billions.

Unfortunately, the fruit of the Miracle Fruit plant are perishable, and only last a few days from the time they are picked. Shipping the berries with the methods available at the time were impossible, and cultivating the plants in other than its native land were unsuccessful. The benefits of Miracle Fruit would have to wait until technology was available to grow the plants and transport the berries.

In the early 20th century, a botanist named David Fairchild who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was the first to bring Miracle Fruit to the U.S. from Africa. In 1968, the active protein in the berries were isolated by a biology professor named Lloyd Beidler at Florida State University. One story is that Dutch researchers who were doing similar work with Miracle Fruit berries at that time named the active protein "Miraculin". Another story is that the name "Miraculin" came from Professor Kenzo Kurihara, a Japanese scientist who isolated the active substance in 1968.

Miraculin was first sequenced in 1989. It is a glycoprotein (which is any of a group of complex proteins, as mucin, containing a carbohydrate combined with a simple protein), consisting of 191 amino acids and some carbohydrate chains. Because glycoprotein is sensitive to heat, miraculin loses its taste modifying properties when heated over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This is another reason that early pioneers in the aforementioned Miracle Fruit entrepreneurs failed, as canning fruit involves heating.

Extensive testing of Miracle Fruit has been done, on lab animals and humans, and has been found to be absolutely safe for consumption. There are reports that lab animals that were given a Miracle Fruit diet ended up healthier at the end of testing than the control animals who ate none. I remember reading about a plantation (somewhere in South America if I'm not mistaken), where they were growing Miracle Fruit to get the seeds. So, they had an old man who sat there every day getting the seeds from the berries, and he ate all of the berries. After years of eating hundreds of berries every day, he was fit as a fiddle.

So what happened to the Miracle Fruit? Why isn't it available in stores today, or used as a sugar substitute? After years of testing and millions of dollars spent getting ready to mass produce Miracle Fruit, the FDA classified Miracle Fruit as a "food additive", and denied approval to use it as a food additive. The Miralin Corporation, the main entity behind bringing Miracle Fruit to the masses, had to file for bankruptcy and fired about 280 employees. To date, no other company has put forth the effort (or considerable funding) to prove that Miracle Fruit is a safe and effective "food additive", so now Miracle Fruit is mostly unknown to the majority of people here in the U.S.A.

Hopefully, that will change. In Japan, Miracle Fruit is making a comeback, as small stores sell them along with low calorie deserts to people on a diet. The effects of Miracle Fruit are also well known to help people undergoing chemotherapy, as they often lose their appetites due to a bad taste in their mouths from the drugs they have to take. Diabetics also enjoy Miracle Fruit, as they can eat healthy foods and get the sweet taste of candy they miss, without having to worry about their blood sugar. Although the FDA has denied approval for using Miracle Fruit as a food additive, it is perfectly legal to grow and sell the berries, because the Food and Drug Administration doesn't require prior approval to sell fresh fruits.