What is Cran-Max® Cranberry Supplement?

An old Native American legend has it that the wild cranberry was a gift of the Great Spirit. The cranberry was brought from heaven in the beak of a dove and dropped into a bog. The Indians introduced the Pilgrims to these sour red berries that grew around Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Cape Cod Indians called the berry Ibimi, meaning bitter berry. The Indians used cranberry poultices to draw venom from arrow wounds. The bright red cranberry juice gave them dye for rugs and blankets. Crushed cranberries mixed with dried venison and fat formed a food the Indians called pemmican. They would shape the mixture into cakes and bake it in the hot sun, which would keep for a long time. Other tribes dried the berries, and seasoned them with maple sugar.

The early English settlers found the sweetened berries made an excellent sauce for meats. The Pilgrims then began inventing cranberry recipes of their own. They made cranberry sauce, cranberry tarts, cranberry nog, and a jam made of cranberries and apples, sweetened with syrup from pumpkin pulp. As the pink blossom of the plant looked like the head of a crane to the early settlers (see picture above), they named this new fruit the crane berry, which became cranberry.

When the settlements turned into thriving towns, cranberries remained popular. As the trade with Europe grew, cranberries were served to ships' crews to provide them with vitamin C, which was found to prevent scurvy. Other documented medical applications in the 17th century included the relief of stomach ailments, liver problems, blood disorders, and cancer. The boiled berry and seal oil were used to reduce the severity of gall bladder attacks.

Today the cranberry has hundreds of uses.

In 1996 Douglas Mann, son of a Cape Cod cranberry farmer, saw the many positive uses for the cranberry outside the berry form and started Cape Cod Biolab Corp. Recent studies have helped promote a definitive link between cranberries and a reduction in the occurrence and severity of urinary tract infections.

Cran-Max® Cranberry Supplement now is the leader in cranberry supplements.