vQueensland couple relocate to grow a taste-modifying ‘miracle berry’ used in cancer treatments
A little-known berry called ‘miracle fruit’ has been grown in far north Queensland, for its taste modifying effects. It is sometimes used as a complimentary therapy in cancer treatments. But, when producing 'miracle fruit' from the tropics, proved unsuitable. But one couple did not give up, instead they dug up the farm and trucked their trees thousands of kilometres south.
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00:00On this farm, they grow something most people have never heard of.
00:06The botanical name is Seceplum dulcificum.
00:09It has a glycoprotein in the fruit which binds the sweet receptors on your tongue.
00:14So anything sour or acidic, it won't taste sour or acidic, it'll taste sweet.
00:19These small red berries are known as miracle fruit.
00:23Their taste-modifying effect can last one to two hours and they've been used to help
00:27chemotherapy patients suffering from taste disturbances.
00:32When you start to know the facts about how many people have experienced taste issues
00:37in their cancer treatment, and when you start looking at the numbers, it's such a serious
00:41issue.
00:42This farm started out in the Dane tree in far north Queensland, but producing miracle
00:47fruit in any meaningful way from the tropics proved too difficult.
00:51So they potted their 3,000 fruit trees and trucked them 1,500 kilometres south to a
00:58more suitable climate, here in Childers.
01:01They totally freaked out so as soon as they got here they started fruiting.
01:04It was a big expensive gamble.
01:06We're not doing this for a commercial reason, we've watched someone close to us suffer and
01:11that's probably what drives us.
01:14They previously only had capacity to pick, package and distribute the berries themselves,
01:20but they only lasted a day or two.
01:22They've recently added a processing facility on the farm which has significantly changed
01:27their operations.
01:28Once picked, the miracle fruit is now freeze-dried into a product which can last up to two years
01:34on a shelf.
01:35They're now stocked in hospitals and health services run by Ramsey Health, being offered
01:40to thousands of cancer patients.
01:43They can eat, they can stay well and they can maintain their treatment regimens much
01:47better than if food becomes unpalatable and this just helps with that.
01:54I've got to do something worthwhile and to me it's changing lives.