@BrowserUK: you fergot some enclosing *

Another similar, but different way:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w 
use strict;

while (<DATA>) {
    $_ =~ /(The seller has the following \*fruit\* types: )\(?([a-z ,*
+]+)\)?\./;
    my ($const, $rep) = ($1, $2);
    $rep =~ s/\s?\*\s?/#/g;
    $rep =~ s/,? and/and/;
    print "$const*($rep)*.\n";
}
[download]

Same input, same output (but with those extra *)