Jesus makes this comparison of fruit and deeds:
Matt 7:17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Which could define ‘fruit’ as outcome, the outcome of the knowledge of good and evil, or at least the actual fruit was a physical connection to the spiritual.
Also just to note the reappearance of the tree of life, the one that A&E were prevented from, comes back for us in Revelation 22. The purpose of the tree of good and evil seemed to no longer been needed as such knowledge was already in humanity.