* Please Note: This information is based partly on Traditional Medicine which uses natural materials to support health. This information has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These products are intended to support general well being and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical doctor.
Description
Cranberry
Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.
Synonym: Oxycoccus macrocarpos (Ait.) Pers.
English Common Names
Cranberry, large cranberry, American cranberry.
Red-fruited species of Vaccinium are almost universally called cranberries in North America. The taxonomically complex genus Vaccinium is often divided into several subgenera or sections, including the subgenus or genus Oxycoccos, in which about four species are placed, including V. macrocarpon and its close relative V. oxycoccos L., sometimes called the "true cranberries?" The partridgeberry or mountain cranberry (V. vitis-idaea L.) is segregated in a different subgenus of Vaccinium, but is somewhat similar. The American cranberrybush, Viburnum trilobum Marsh., also called "highbush cranberry," is not related to the true cranberries; this species is a close relative of the elderberry. The Florida cranberry, Hibiscus sabdariffa L., is also quite unrelated to Vaccinium, but the fleshy calyx which surrounds the mature fruit is cooked and served as "cranberry."
French Common Names
Canneneberge, airelle à gros fruits, gros atocas (Îles de Ia Madeleine: graines, pommes de prée).
Morphology
The cranberry is an evergreen, creeping, mat-forming plant with slender, intricately forking horizontal stems 30-150 cm long, and upright flowering stems arising from the leaf axils. Although often referred to as a vine, it is a trailing shrub rather than a true vine. The leaves are 5-18 (generally 7-10) mm long, somewhat leathery, with a very short leaf stalk. One to 10 nodding pink flowers are borne on young upright shoots 4-15 cm high. Each flower is on a pedicel 10-30 mm long, in the axil of a small leaf. Flower buds form in late in midsummer (late June - early July) of the following year and, after insect pollination, the fruits mature late in the autumn (mid- to late October). The berries are typically bright red at maturity (some plants produce white berries), 1-2.5 cm thick, globose, ellipsoid, or pear-shaped, with hard, shiny skin. Fruits of cranberry cultivars may be bell-shaped, bugle-shaped, or cherry-shaped, and color may vary from a light yellow through to dark red to almost black. The berries are high in acid and pectin, and extremely tart (astringent) due to their low sugar content. The fruits ripen in early to mid-fall, at which time they become loosely attached to the stem.
Classification and Geography
Vaccinium is a large, complex, imperfectly understood genus of perhaps 150 species (estimates range up to 400), mostly in North America and eastern Asia. This genus includes a wide range of edible berries (bearing such colorful names as blueberries, tackleberries, hurtleberries, huckleberries, farkleberries, sparkleberries, deerberries, and southern gooseberries). Perhaps the best known medicinal species is V. myrtillus L., the bilberry, treated elsewhere in this work.
Vaccinium vitis-idaea L., variously known as the lingonberry (lingenberry), partridgeberry, foxberry, mountain cranberry, and rock cranberry, grows well in very cold climates, and indeed is circumboreal. It is a minor wild-collected crop of Newfoundland (over 100 000 kg/year) and Nova Scotia (about 5000 kg/year). The species is grown in the Scandinavian countries and is currently being developed as a crop in Poland and the Soviet Union. In Europe, lingonberry sauce is often labelled for export as cranberry. The lingonberry has been occasionally used medicinally as a urinary antiseptic, as described in some detail here for the large cranberry.
The large cranberry, V. macrocarpon, is native to North America. It is distributed from Newfoundland to central Minnesota, south to Nova Scotia, New England, Long Island (New York), West Virginia, northern Ohio, central Indiana, northern Illinois, and rarely Arkansas, and the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. The large cranberry is cultivated within its native range, but also in parts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, and in these areas it has escaped and established in the wild. Plants are also cultivated in parts of northern and central Europe, and the species has also escaped and become naturalized in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Numerous cultivars were selected in the 19th century. Most cranberry cultivars originated as single vine selections from native populations, but breeding has produced some improved cultivars. Cultivars include 'Early Black,' 'Howes,' 'Stevens,' 'Searles,' 'McFarlin,' 'Bergman,' 'Crowley,' and 'Ben Lear.'
Vaccinium oxycoccus, the small cranberry or mossberry, is closely related and very similar to the large cranberry. The small cranberry is a very widespread species of boggy or peaty soil, occurring from Greenland and Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota, in the west to California, and also in Eurasia. The species is variable and is sometimes treated as a complex of several species. It has been interpreted as a tetraploid hybrid (with 48 chromosomes) of the diploid V. inacrocarpon (with 24 chromosomes) and the diploid V. microcarpon (Turcz.) Hook. of boreal America and Eurasia. The small cranberry may be distinguished from the large cranberry by the pedicels bearing a pair of smaller red bractiets less than 1 rmn broad near or below their middle (whereas the bractlets are closer to the flowers in V. macrocarpon, green and mostly 1-3 mm broad) and the smaller fruit (5-13 mm in diameter vs. 10-25 mm for V. macrocarpon). The leaves of the small cranberry are pointed whereas those of the large cranberry are blunt or rounded at the tip. Berries are gathered from the wild, but the smaller fruits and relatively limited productivity of the small cranberry have discouraged interest in its domestication.
The genetic diversity of the large cranberry is threatened as a consequence of the general decline of natural wetland habitats. Genetic diversity appears to be low in the northern part of the range but relict populations in the southern Appalachians south of land glaciated during the Pleistocene period may be more variable. A recent study suggested that DNA analysis (ssRAPDs) can be used effectively in assessment of genetic diversity and varietal identification.
Ecology
Cranberry occurs in open areas and wet shores, preferring open acid bogs, swamps and damp heaths. It is adapted to highly acidic soils (thriving at pH 3.2-4.5). The cranberry can self-pollinate, although bees increase fruit yield, and for this purpose bee colonies are frequently brought into cranberry bogs during flowering. A variety of natural polinators has been reported, most important of which are bumble bees. The berries of V. macrocarpon are dispersed by water and shore birds. Muskrat and deer are also fond of the berries.
Medicinal Uses
European colonists appreciated the value of cranberry in warding off scurvy (a legitimate medicinal use, since the berries are high in vitamin C). Cranberry also acquired a folk reputation as a treatment for urinary tract problems, and this application has also been validated. Cranberry is a strong diuretic (promoting urination), and the juice is often prescribed as dietary treatment for urinary tract infections, kidney disorders and other conditions where the passing of fluids is desirable. Many women suffer from cystitis, an inflammation and (or) infection of the bladder, at some time in their lives, with as many as one in five women estimated to have urinary tract discomfort at least once a year. Cystitis is most frequently caused by bacteria that travel from the urethra, and because women have a shorter urethra which is more easily contaminated by organisms from the vagina and surrounding areas, urinary tract infections are about 50 times more common in females than in males. Antibiotics are an effective therapy, but antibiotic use sometimes results in adverse reactions, can be costly, and can lead to the development of resistant organisms. Cranberry can be used both as a preventive and as an adjunct treatment for urinary tract infections. Cranberry juice therapy may require drinking a liter (or pint) of straight cranberry juice daily, which few are willing to do. Fortunately cranberry capsules are easily swallowed. Consumers should be aware that some of the "cranberry juice" on the market may have much sugar and water added, but the pure form or a concentrate is likely to be more beneficial. In addition to preventing urinary tract infections, cranberry is reported to have the added benefit of deodorizing the urinary tract.
There are several theories to explain why cranberry is effective for maintaining urinary tract health: cranberry juice may make the urine more acidic, and the bacteria that cause infection are not likely to flourish in an acid environment (there is relatively little support today for this explanation); cranberries may cause relatively large amounts of the bacteriostatic hippuric acid to be excreted in the urine; components of cranberry juice may interfere with the ability of bacteria to stick to the lining of the bladder and urethra, and so they are washed away in the urinary stream. The last interpretation is generally favored today. It appears that the most common bacterium responsible for urinary tract infection, Escherichia coli, produces constituents known as adhesins to anchor to tissues, and that there are anti-adhesin factors in cranberry juice.
Preliminary tests conducted by University of Wisconsin researchers have suggested that cranberry juice may have an anti-oxidant effect on clogged heart arteries, thus reducing cardiovascular disease.
Chemistry
Cranberries are extremely high in vitamin C, moderately high in vitamin A, and quite high in fiber and anthocyanins, all components that have health-giving qualities. Hippuric acid is an important medicinal constituent of the fruit, as the metabolism of this compound produces low pH urine, unlike most other fruits, which as noted above may explain why cranberry juice is a useful urinary antiseptic. (Compare our treatment of bearbeny, which is effective as a urinary antiseptic only if the urine is alkaline.)
Non-medicinal Uses
Cranberries have long been in demand as a food plant. The fruit was prized by Native Americans, who used it in many ways, including in pemmican, a dried mixture of animal fat and fruit, which was the precursor of the dehydrated foods used by present-day hikers during camping trips. Benzoic acid in the berries likely aided in preservation. Today, cranberries provide a tasty sauce to accompany meat and poultry, as well as being incorporated in salads and numerous products, including juice, cocktails, pies, tarts, jellies and preserves. The cranberry is a beautiful fruit, and this has led to its use especially during the Christmas and Thaiiksgiving festive seasons. Most cranberries are frozen for storage or marketing.
Agricultural and Commercial Aspects
Cranberry culture was developed in the New World. Henry Hall of Dennis, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, was the first to cultivate the crop, at the beginning of the 19th century. Commercial (engineered) bogs became common soon after that. By the late 19th century, commercial cultivation had spread north to Nova Scotia.
The center of cranberry cultivation and production is Massachusetts, but considerable quantities are also raised in the peatlands of British Columbia, New Jersey, Washington and Oregon. Considerable cranberry culture also occurs in Wisconsin, and in limited degree in Onthrio, Quebec, and the maritime provinces. In Canada native people have harvested cranberries on a small scale for many years, for example in the Parry Sound region of Ontario. For a long period the major area of cranberry production in Canada was Lulu Island at the mouth of the Fraser River. Currently in Canada cranberry growing is carried out primarily in the lower portions of the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia, an area near Drummondville Quebec, and in several parts of Nova Scotia. There are over 1000 cranberry growers in the United States, utilizing almost 14,000 ha and producing over $1 billion in retail sales annually. Ocean Spray Inc., a growers' cooperative comprising 950 cranbeny and grapefruit growers in the US and Canada, markets about 90 percent of the cranberries grown in North America.
Cranberry Bogs
Cranberries are confined to cool, moist regions, and culture of them is largely restricted to acid soils along the edges of streams and ponds, and in bogs of temperate North America. Cranberry culture is a highly specialized form of small fruit production. Although cranberries are adapted to moist habitats, too high a water level encourages rushes, sedges and other competing plants, which then crowd the crop and interfere with pest control and picking. Sphagnum bogs are unsuitable until drained and the substrate allowed to decay to muck. Muck soils are particularly suitable because of their moisture-holding capacity. Cranberries have also been successfully planted on relatively dry soils near the sea, where relatively low summer temperatures retard evaporation. Bogs are occasionally built on sand or clay with little or no muck, but these usually require considerable fertilization, normally supplied by the decaying organic matter.
The development of a cranberry bog is a complex operation requiring considerable capital outlay. Typically a series of planting beds about a ha in size, serviced by a single reservoir of water, is laid out. A cranberry bog is usually established by pressing stem cuttings into the surface of a freshly sanded bed. A coating of sand is provided annually or every 2 years. Sand is a favorable rooting medium, suppressing weeds, and protecting the plants from mild frosts by holding absorbed heat from the sun. Cranberry bears some fruit in the second and third season, but 3-5 years are necessary for full production. Because of high labor costs and a short picking season, mechanical harvesters are widely used. Bogs are typically flooded at harvest time to a depth of 15-20 cm. The berries are shaken off the bushes and as they float on the surface they are easily raked or vacuumed into containers for cleaning and sorting. All of these operations can be carried out by some mechanical harvesters. Flooding during the winter season is to protect the plants from freezing damage (encasing the vines in ice insulates the buds against winter injury). Properly maintained bogs are almost per- manent, some plantings -remaining productive for over 75 years. Yield usually ranges from 8,000 to 10,000 kg/ha.
Cultivation
Pests of cranberry crops may account for almost 35% of field costs. The pests include at least 26 insects, 35 fungi, 6 nematodes, several viruses, and many weeds (mostly grasses and sedges), as well as two parasitic dodder plants (genus Cuscuta). Larvae of the cranbeny fruit worm moth consume the berries. These and some of the fireworm moth pests can be effectively controlled by appropriate cycles of flooding. Frost damage has been a major cause of periodic crop losses. Yield of cranberries has increased by five times between 1909 and the present due to gradual and continuous improvements in management, including frost injury prevention, improved harvest technology and modern control of pests. The substantial increases in productivity have been stimulated by a combination of scientific research and producer innovations.
The Future
In 1955 20% of US households used cranberry juice products. By 1985 this had increased to 70%, and the popularity of cranberry continues to expand. There has been concern that environmentally sensitive wetlands might be eliminated or damaged by development of new cranberry bogs, but technology is available to control damage to wetland sites, and even to develop bogs on dryland sites. Demand for the fruit has almost always exceeded the supply, keeping prices high. However, the potential for increasing productivity is good. There are a number of locally adapted cultivars, and newer hybrid cultivars are expected to become increasingly available as a result of accelerated breeding programs. Experts have suggested that considerable improvements could be realized with a sustained breeding program for insect resistance, as well as other traits. A wealth of information on cultivation procedures-exists in books and regional agriculture department pamphlets. Current markets are reported to require several thousand hectares of new plantings in the near future, and demand is expected to continue to increase. Although the cost of initial establishment is relatively high and costs are not recovered quickly, cranberry appears to be a good investment. With a large potential area of cultivation in the eastern provinces and British Columbia, cranberry could become a much more important Canadian crop.
Myths, Legends, Tales, Folklore, and Interesting Facts
"Cranberry" is a corruption of "crane-berry," an early American name for the plant. The flower bud was said to resemble a crane (the slender curving pedicel, calyx and corolla of the flower bud, before it opens, respectively simulate the neck, head and beak of a crane).
The Pilgrims on arriving in the New World observed cranberries growing profusely in the area about Cape Cod, and noted that the Indians used the fruit as a source of a brilliant red dye for their clothes.
Damaged cranberries often sink in water, so that simply washing berries in water can reveal the superior berries. Another method that has been recommended to judge the quality of cranberries is to bounce them: the more times they bounce, the better the berry.
The "Craisin™," a dried, sweetened cranberry, is currently being marketed in breakfast cereals and fruit mixes by Ocean Spray Inc.
At least 700 consumer products contain cranberries in one form or another.
Although most cultivated cranberry is used to produce juice, about 50 million kg of cranberry sauce is consumed in the US each year.
A sauce was made with white cranberries as a prelude to a new marketing strategy, but it was of an amber color and had an insipid taste. Because the dark pigments of the fruit contribute substantially to the taste and medicinal quality of cranberries, the value of white cranberries is debatable.
In 1959 many cranberry growers in the United States applied the weed killer aminotriazole prematurely, before the cranberries were harvested, rather than following the usual practice of waiting until the crop was removed. As a result the berries were contaminated. The incident led to sensationalistic publicity after it was disclosed that the chemical was capable of producing cancer in mice, and the resulting suspension of cranberry sales led to millions of dollars of losses for the cranberry industry.
In 1970, cranberry juice was named the state beverage of Massachusetts. A fifth-grade class adopted the cause of making the cranberry the official berry of the state. Their 2 years of lobbying, petitions, and hearings were finally rewarded in 1994.
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Directions
Take 1-2 capsules per day.
Ingredients
Cranberry Fruit - 450 mg
Cautions
Toxicity
Cranberries are not considered toxic. Drinking more than 4 liters a day can result in diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems.
Additional Information
Herb-Xtra is committed to the manufacture of high quality, standardized and guaranteed natural health products and supplements.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Products are intended to support general well being and are not intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical doctor. The essence of the current American rule on Traditional Uses is, as stated by FTC, "Claims based on historical or traditional use should be substantiated by confirming scientific evidence, or should be presented in such a way that consumers understand that the sole basis for the claim is a history of use of the product for a particular purpose."
