Synsepalum Dulcificum: A Review

Abstract

Synsepalum dulcificum also regarded as a miracle berry, belonging to the Sapotaceae family. It is cultivated for its mild fruits, which makes sour foods to give a sweet taste, the effect lasts for about 30 minutes. The plant is a shrub, containing red coloured fruits and localised to West Africa. They used this plant as their palm wine and also used this for certain other beverages to make it sweetened regionally. Because of its remarkable sweet potential used to make the sour foods taste sweet. Miraculin is the glycoprotein present in the plant responsible for the sweet taste. Some of the reported health benefits are anti-diabetic, effective food enhancer, taste disorder in cancer, alter the taste. The plant is known for its production of transgenic tomatoes. Ethnobotany uses of the plants includes in the treatment of male infertility, Asthma, Haemorrhoids, Anti-cancer etc. The aim of the present review was to brief the literature survey of the plant through the internet like PubMed and Google scholar for forming the platform to illustrate the ethnopharmacology of the plant, information about the traditional usage, important chemical constituents and selected pharmacological activities of the plant were gathered from available research papers to frame the review. The current review also highlights the phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of Synsepalum dulcificum which will have been helped in the researchers for the further qualitative research.