Synsepalum dulcificum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Synsepalum dulcificum (Schum. & Thonner) Baillon

Family: Sapotaceae

• Bumelia dulcifica Schum. & Thonner,
• Pouteria dulcifica (Schum. & Thonner) Baehni,
• Richardella dulcifica (Schum. & Thonner) Baehni.

• Miraculous berry, miraculous fruit, sweet berry (En)

• Fruit miraculeux (Fr)

Africa, from Ghana to the Congo area. Occasionally cultivated, also outside its area of natural distribution.

The sweet-acid pulp around the seeds is eaten. The taste of sweetness remains for about 2 hours in the mouth, "sweetening” sour and bitter substances eaten in that time. It has a greater effect in sweetening acidity than in countering bitterness. It is also used for sweetening palm-wine. The twigs are used as chewsticks and the wood as firewood.

• Shrub or small tree, up to 4.5 m tall.
• Leaves alternate, simple, entire, clustered near ends of branchlets; petiole very short; blade obovate-oblanceolate, 5-10 cm × 1.5-4 cm, glabrous below, with about 8 pairs of lateral veins.
• Flowers solitary, in small, axillary, subsessile clusters; calyx tubular, 4-5-lobed, ribbed; corolla tubular, tube as long as calyx, lobes 4-5, brown; stamens 4-5; pistil with simple style and inconspicuous stigma.
• Fruit a one-seeded, ellipsoidal berry, 1.5-1.8 cm long, dark red; pulp whitish-pink.
• Seed large with a hard, shiny testa.

S. dulcificum prefers damp localities, e.g. along rivers. It is often grown around dwellings. Propagation is by seed but it is slow-growing. The active principle is a basic glycoprotein (miraculin) with a high molecular weight (44 000) which is difficult to stabilize. The purified protein is potentially an interesting sweetening agent. It may potentially be of interest for South-East Asia as source of a natural sweetening agent.

Other potential sources of natural sweeteners are: Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii (Stapf) Diels (serendipity berry, containing monellin) and Thaumatococcus daniellii (Bennet) Benth. (katemfe, containing thaumatin).

• Ayensu, E.S., 1972. Morphology and anatomy of Synsepalum dulcificum (Sapotaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 65: 179-187.

• Inglett, G.E. & May, J.F., 1968. Tropical plants with unusual taste properties. Economic Botany 22: 326-331.

• Irvine, F.R., 1961. Woody plants of Ghana. Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom. 868 pp.

• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants in cultivation (without ornamentals)]. Schultze‑Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition, 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.

P.C.M. Jansen