Miracle fruit

Miracle fruit, a berry from the plant Synsepalum dulcificum, is also indigenous to Africa. This berry grows in the coastal region of West Africa, and first came to European attention in the 1850s when an English surgeon noted that the commander of a British fort in Dahomey enjoyed ‘constant opportunities of testing the wonderful effects of this fruit’.

The so-called ‘miracle berry’ was rediscovered in the 1920s by a US Department of Agriculture collecting expedition. It is an ornamental shrub, usually branched with dense foliage that gr0ws no higher than 6 feet and bears several crops each year.

The fruit was found to contain anthocyanins and flavonol pigments which could have potential to be used as natural food colorants. The red pigments of miracle fruit (14.3 mg/100 g fresh wt) were identified as cyanidn-3-monogalactoside, cyanidin-3-monoglucoside, cyanidin-3-monoarabinoside, delphimidin-3-monogalactoside and delphmidin-3-monoarabinoside existing in a ratio of 188:62:9:5:2, respectively.

Miracle fruit contains the protein miraculin, which is related to the protein thaumatin found in another ‘sweetener’ plant Thaumatocossus.
Miracle fruit

Serendipity berry

Another berry found in West and Central Africa is the fruit of Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii, a light red berry which grows in grape-like clusters.

Known as the ‘serendipity berry’ it is an herbaceous grown for its sweet berries, which are used as natural non-carbohydrate sweetener substitute. It grows in the rainforest during the rainy season from approximately July to October.

The fruits are red 1.3 long, in a grape-like cluster 50-100 in cluster, outer skin tough, pulp semi-solid, white, mucilaginous. While the berry is too sweet to have found use among the natives, parts of the plant are eaten. The sweetening principle is a polypeptide, soluble in water, but very large labile at high temperature.

The non-sucrose compound responsible for the sweet taste is classified as monellin, a sweet polypeptide. The sweetness of monellin is approximately 2500 times sweeter than sucrose in a weight basis.

Fruit fairly heavily from August through November, They are picked by hand and used as needed. Fruits are remarkably stable, and may be kept for several weeks at room temperature. Tubers dig in the dry season and sued as a vegetable.
Serendipity berry

Raspberries

Raspberries
There are many varieties of raspberries that are red, black, or purple in color. The purple varieties have been produced by cross breeding the red and black varieties. Raspberries grow on canes the second year after planting, and since the canes produce fruit only once, they must be pruned each year.

Raspberries are grown over most parts of the United States, but they are sensitive to both extreme heat and extreme cold. Therefore, in certain areas, the plants may need some type of protection from extremes of weather. Because of their delicate structure, raspberries must be handled carefully during their harvest and processing. They are generally harvested into shallow trays, to prevent crushing, in which they are transported to the plant.

There are two types of raspberries: summer bearing and fall bearing. In some areas of the country, their bearing season may overlap, so raspberries can be harvested early summer until frost. Red and yellow cultivars are summer or fall bearers. Black and purple raspberries are all summer-bearers.

Red and yellow raspberries are the easiest raspberries to grow. Their fruit is sweet and fragrant. Yellow raspberries are mutations, or sports, reds and tend to be very sweet. The color is less attractive to birds, too. Black raspberries are not as winter-hardy as red ones, but tend to tolerate more summer heat. They also are more prone to viral and fungal disease and have stiffer thorns. The berries are seedy but have a very intense flavor. They are good eaten fresh or in preserves.

Purple raspberries are hybrids resulting from crosses between reds and blacks. The canes are generally more winter hardy than the black parents. They tend to be very spiny and productive with large, intensely flavored berries.
Raspberries