"Miracle" berry pill for metallic taste after chemo

Hi all, I just finished reading this on CNN and thought the "berry pill" might help out a few folks out here who are having metallic taste issues after chemo (my Rick for one). The entire article can be found at: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/11/28/miracle-pill-takes-the-bitter-with-the-sweet/ ,if you're interested. Take care, Cyn (Sorry, I have no idea where we can this stuff at the moment, but I'm going to start searching...)

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The miracle fruit, “miracle berry,” or more formally Synsepalum dulcificum contains a glycoprotein – conveniently named miraculin - that temporarily fools taste buds into believing that sour and bitter things taste sweet.

...Knowing Cantu’s interest in the convergence of food and science, friend Paula Perlis called the chef in 2005 with a favor to ask: Her close friend was undergoing chemo and radiation therapy and had not eaten, or enjoyed, a solid meal in six years. (A common side effect of chemotherapy is a strong metallic taste in your mouth.)

“We chewed on car tire rubber and foil for months trying to mimic the flavor you get from radiation and chemotherapy,” says Cantu.

After trial-and-error with random ingredients, the chefs finally created a cocktail that counteracted the metallic taste. The cocktail included the miracle berry.

The chefs then isolated the fruit in powder form, passed it along to Perlis’s friend and received a successful - and grateful - call shortly after.

Since then, Cantu has given away the miracle berry away to thousands of chemo patients on his own dime – with no reports of adverse reactions.

“The interesting thing about the miracle berry in chemo patients is that it actually straightens out their taste buds, whereas for you and I, it blocks our bitter and sour receptors,” says Cantu. “For them, it straightens them out to taste food as it normally tastes.”