Cranberry
Scientific name: Vaccinium macrocarpon
Family: Ericaceae
What is behind this remarkable ingredient? Cranberry
Cranberry is a small red berry indigenous to Northern America that was used by American Indians. It is rich in flavonoids that help neutralize body free radicals and in consequence prevent skin early ageing.
Etymology
The origin of this berry’s name comes from the shape of the flower on the bushes. When it blossoms in spring, it looks like the head of a long peak crane.
American Indians used cranberry as food and as a natural medicine; they also used its red pigments to dye their clothes.
Harvest
In Quebec, cranberry is harvested once a year, when temperatures first drop below 0 in autumn (from end of September until end of October). It is an amazing attraction, nowhere else to be seen: producers flood the cultivated plots of land, that are made to retain water; then they shake trees with machines called « egg beaters ». Berries fall and as they are hollow, they float at the surface of water; they are then pumped into tank trucks to be taken away to be sorted and cleaned.
Did you know?
Cranberry has no sodium and contains very little sugar and proteins, that makes it adapted to everyone’s consumption.
It can be absorbed as a juice, it then contribute to reducing some bacteria settling in the urinary system.
Finally, it is a fantastic source of vitamins; seamen from the eastern part of the North American continent have understood that as early as in the 17th century: they used to absorb a lot of it to prevent scorbutus (a disease due to a lack of vitamin C that creates anaemia, falling teeth and muscular collapse).
Cranberry oil is mainly used as a source of omega-3 (33%), a powerful antioxidant; but also because it is highly hydrating and as it holds a rare and special form of vitamin E. Carotenoids, precursors of vitamin A, can be found in cranberry, they play a role in the process of fighting skin early ageing via oxidation.
Discover: Crème des anges.
