Bugnay: Miracle Fruit?

Bugnay as it is called in our part of the Philippines, is a kind of sour berry that is ripest when it is at its blackest. Bugnay comes in clumps of some 30 or more berries clumped together in various degrees of ripeness, making a colorful bunch of light green, pink, red to black berries. It is also called bignay in Tagalog.

I once read a newspaper article where a couple cultivating bugnay fruit claimed that the bugnay is also called miracle berry which has a taste-changing property, turning the next sour thing you will eat sour. However, when I researched more about the African miracle berry (synsepalum dulcificum), I have my doubts because the miracle berry looks different from our bugnay (antidesma bunius).

I would have wanted to try it for myself but the tempting sour-sweet black berries were soon wiped out and there was no other sour thing to try my tastebuds on. Oh, well.


The bugnay tree is medium in size and is easy to climb.