摘要或動機

原產於西非的「神秘果」，嘗了之後，30~200 分內，所有酸苦的東西嘗起來都是甜的。在深入蒐集相關資料後，我們發現神秘果有多種特殊效果，僅擷取以下幾種感興趣之方向來研究。〈1〉使酸苦的感覺變甜〈2〉解酒〈3〉消除蚊蟲叮咬之腫、癢〈4〉抗氧化能力極強。用食鹽水可萃取出miraculin 這種醣蛋白，經由生化實驗，推測使酸味變甜為其cover 舌尖甜味味蕾之結果，分子量約為40000 左右；但在檢測過程中，發現對咖啡、黃連和肉桂，都沒有太顯著的效果，只有酸味有顯著的改變，和以往所閱讀的研究報告有出入，因此懷
疑有氧化還原等其他化學效果，將再做深一層研究。消除蚊蟲叮咬之腫癢的成分確定為小分子所致。經由Prolox 當量測定法檢測神秘果抗氧化能力數值高達4974g/nmol，比一般中草藥及蔬菜多3000 左右。使酸變甜的原因若深入研究對糖尿病患者和減肥者都是一大福音，塗抹蚊蟲叮咬藥膏也可用天然物質製作，而抗氧化能力高更對人體健康有所幫助。當台灣已大量栽植，相對於日本及美國因地寒而無法培育成功，神秘果研究可成為另一項產業發展契機。 "Miracle fruit” is a fruit from West Africa. Though it's not sweet itself, if you eat anything that is sour or bitter after eating miracle fruit, the taste will turn sweet. After researching further material, we discovered that there are many amazing functions in miracle fruit, and decided to pick up some of which to study. (1) Turning the sour and bitter tastes into sweetness (2) Relieving alcohol (3) Relieving the hurt from mosquitoes and bugs (4) An excellent antioxidant. We can extract the miraculin that changes the taste from NaCl (aq), and through the biological experiment, we guess that's because miraculin covers the sweet sensor. The molecular weight of miraculin is about 40000.According to the experiment, we found out that miraculin doesn't have a great effect on the taste other than sourness, such as the bitterness of black coffee, Coptis chinensis, and cinnamon. . It is much more different from the former report we read. So we doubt that there are some other reactions. The thing, which relieves the hurt from mosquitoes and bugs, are sure to be a simple molecule, not a protein. By the Prolox equivalent weight experiment, we
found that the ability of antioxidation got to 4974g/nmol, which is much higher than the normal vegetables and fruits.
The effect of taste changing is really good news for diabetics and weight reducers. And the medicine can also be made by natural material. The excellent antioxidation is helpful for our health, too. Since Japan and America cannot grow the miracle fruit because of the cold weather, developing the functions of miracle fruit seems to be another chance for Taiwan to stand out in the world.