Cranberry
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The cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccus, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccus. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs up to 10 cm tall (often less), with slender, wiry stems, not thickly woody, and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. The fruit is a true berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.
There are three to four species of cranberry, classified in two sections:
- Subgenus Oxycoccus, sect. Oxycoccus
- Vaccinium oxycoccus or Oxycoccus palustris (Common Cranberry or Northern Cranberry) is widespread throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. It has small 5-10 mm leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with a purple central spike, produced on finely hairy stems. The fruit is a small pale pink berry, with a refreshing sharp acidic flavour.
- Vaccinium microcarpum or Oxycoccus microcarpus (Small Cranberry) occurs in northern Europe and northern Asia, and differs from V. oxycoccus in the leaves being more triangular, and the flower stems hairless. Some botanists include it within V. oxycoccus.
- Vaccinium macrocarpon or Oxycoccus macrocarpus (American Cranberry) native to northeastern North America (eastern Canada, and eastern United States, south to North Carolina at high altitudes). It differs from V. oxycoccus in the leaves being larger, 10-20 mm long, and in its slightly apple-like taste.
Some plants of the completely unrelated genus Viburnum are sometimes inaccurately called "highbush cranberries".
Cranberries from Massachusetts and New Jersey are susceptible to false blossom, a harmful but controllable phytoplasma disease.
Etymology and history
The name cranberry probably derives from their being a favourite food of cranes, though some sources claim the name comes from "'craneberry' because before the flower expands, its stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane". Another name, used in northeastern Canada, is mossberry.
Cranberries have been eaten by Arctic peoples for millennia and remain a very popular fruit for wild harvesting in the Nordic countries and Russia. In Scotland the berries were formerly wild harvested but with the loss of suitable habitat, the plants have become so scarce that this is no longer done. In North America, Native Americans were the first to recognise and use the cranberry as a source of food. Some tribes called the red berries Sassamanash. They are reported to have introduced the cranberry to starving English settlers in Massachusetts around 1620, who incorporated the berry into the traditional Thanksgiving feast. American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall is alleged to be the first to cultivate the cranberry commercially, in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816.
Cultivation and uses
Cranberries are a major commercial crop in the American states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as in British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Canada. Wisconsin has led the United States in cranberry production since 1995. Commercial cranberry fields today are diked so they may be flooded. When the berries are ripe, they float, making harvesting a matter of flooding the field, shaking the vines a bit, and skimming off the berries into waiting trucks. Various mechanisms have been used through the years to "shake" the vines, including a 2005 innovation that reduces vine damage and increases yield.
Usually cranberries as fruit are served as a compote or jelly, often known generically as cranberry sauce. Such preparations are traditionally served with roast turkey meat and are considered by some to be a staple of the US holiday Thanksgiving. The berry is also used in baking (muffins, scones and cakes) but, unlike many other berries, is normally considered too sharp to be eaten unaccompanied.
Cranberry handlers (processors) include Ocean Spray, Cliffstar, Inc., Northland Cranberries, Clement Pappas & Co., Decas Cranberry Products as well as a number of small handlers and processors.
Cranberry juice, usually sweetened to reduce its natural severe tartness and make "cranberry juice cocktail" or blended with other fruit juices, is a major use of cranberries.
Cranberries are a source of polyphenol antioxidants, chemicals which are known to provide certain health benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system.
There is some use of cranberry juice by people with spinal paralysis; regular consumption of the juice is supposed to reduce the rate of urinary tract infections. While much of the evidence is equivocal, a number of double-blind clinical trials have been carried out that suggest there actually is an effect: a component of the juice appears to competitively inhibit bacterial attachment to the bladder and urethra[link].
An autumn 2004 caution from the Committee on Safety of Medicines, the UK agency dealing with drug safety, advised patients taking warfarin not to drink cranberry juice after adverse effects were reported.
Cranberries also contain significant concentrations of benzoic acid, which in combination with Vitamin C forms the group 1 carcinogen benzene [link].
Cranberry juice contains a chemical that blocks pathogens that cause tooth decay [link].
External links
- Germplasm Resources Information Network: [Sect. Oxycoccus] and [Sect. Oxycoccoides]
- [October 2004 "Current Problems in Pharmacovigilance" (pdf file)] - has warfarin and cranberry juice caution, p. 10.
- [2001 review] of evidence for therapeutic effects of cranberry juice
- [1989 study] of cranberry juice's possible role in inhibiting bacterial adherence to bladder cells
- [The Cranberry Institute] for information on cranberry's health benefits.
- [Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association] for information on cranberry culture
- [Cranberry Library Page] Exhuastive link page for cranberry information hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
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