A far north Queensland couple is growing Australia's first commercial crop of a tastebud-altering berry, to try to help chemotherapy patients regain their love of food.

Miracle fruit contains the glycoprotein miraculin, which binds to the sweet receptor cells on tastebuds, making acidic, sour or bitter foods taste sweet.

Chris Beckwith and his partner Karen Pereira discovered the fruit's unique quality when they found a miracle berry bush on their property in the Daintree Rainforest, soon after moving there from Sydney a few years ago.

"Anything you eat for the next hour or so, be it a lime or a tomato or something that's a bit acidic tastes so sweet," Mr Beckwith said.

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The tree changers began giving the tropical fruit to friends and family to try, including one friend who was going through chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia.

"He was just eating ice out of the refrigerator because he couldn't cope with the metallic taste he was getting," Mr Beckwith said.

"His wife video-taped him when he had the first berry and his comment was, 'this is amazing' and from there he started going to restaurants every night.

"His quality of life improved."

The fruit is harvested in summer months and, once picked, the miraculin protein only remains active for around 48 hours, unless the berries are frozen or freeze-dried. ( ABC Rural: Renee Cluff )

The experience prompted the couple to plant more bushes and send berries to other cancer patients in the community.

Among them is Gene Lewis, whose treatment for tongue cancer has affected his taste buds and salivary glands, which limited his diet to supplementary shakes until he was introduced to miracle berries.

"Straight after eating one of those I can go and enjoy a normal meal again because I'd say 90 per cent of my taste buds are almost back to normal," he said.

"It makes eating much more pleasurable again."

Medical endorsement pending

One of the challenges the couple's company, Rubyberry, faces is that there have been no clinical trials in Australia to test whether the fruit's protein, miraculin, can help chemotherapy patients with their taste distortion — a condition known as dysgeusia.

While it is legal to sell the berries, Rubyberry has to be careful about the claims it makes, because the product is not registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Karen Pereira and Chris Beckwith were inspired to grow a crop of miracle fruit after witnessing how the berries had helped a friend, who was undergoing chemotherapy treatment. ( ABC Rural: Renee Cluff )

In the United States, pilot studies have been undertaken by the Mount Sinai Medical Centre and the Creighton University Medical Centre using small patient samples, with encouraging findings.

A freeze-dried version of the berries is available in the pharmacies of the Miami Cancer Institute's 11 hospitals.

Ms Pereira is in talks with the Australian medical profession to try to prompt local research, but she said it has been a difficult process.

"Those who are interested just don't have the funding or the time to look into it further and you don't get answers back from doctors because they get that many calls from people trying to sell them something new," Ms Pereira said.

"I would love it if I could have 200 berries and send them down to a hospital in Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne so that the whole oncology department, including nutritionists, oncologists, cancer nurses can try it together and understand what it does."

Seasonality and perishability affect availability

The couple now has 2,000 plants, however, the main harvest for the berries occurs in summer, when many medical specialists are on annual leave.

Karen Pereira is now honing her horticultural skills to try to get the plants to fruit more often to ensure a consistent supply.

Freeze-dried miracle berries, in the form of tablets, are dispensed to patients in hospitals in the United States. ( ABC Rural: Renee Cluff )

"We need to change our tactics in the way we grow it so that we can supply hospitals," she said.

The other concerning issue is the short shelf life of the berries.

Once picked, the miraculin protein only remains effective for around 48 hours, or up to four weeks if the fruit is put in the freezer.

For now, Rubyberry is importing the freeze-dried product from the United States and will begin freeze-drying fruit from the Daintree farm once there is an abundant supply.

Ms Pereira said freeze-drying gave miraculin a two-year shelf life.

"It just has to be available for everyone in Australia, regardless of where they live," she said.

"Some people can't grow it themselves because they don't live in a tropical area."

However, she was adamant the berries would not be sold to people who wanted them purely for the novelty.

"I couldn't live with myself if I just did this on a small scale because I'd be worried about the person I couldn't help if I didn't have enough fruit," Ms Pereira said.

"I want everyone to be able to at least try it and see if it works for them rather than being told what they have is untreatable, because that's not fair."