In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier was leading an expedition up the St. Lawrence River. Trapped by bad weather, Cartier and his crew were forced to survive on a ration of salted meats and biscuits. Cartier's crew began to suffer from a severe deficiency of vitamin C and showed symptoms of scurvy.
Many crew members dies before the surviving members encountered a friendly Native American who saved most of their lives. He told them to make a tea from the bark and the needles of the pine tree to cure their malady. They complied and, as a result, Cartier and many crew members survived.
Some 400 years, Professor Jacques Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux, France, read a book by Cartier detailing the expedition. He concluded that pine bark not only contained vitamin C, but obviously was a good source of bioflavonoids, whose effects are similar to vitamin C.
Further studies and research revealed that the pine bark contained and entire complex of proanthocyanidin complexes found not only in the pine bark but in a variety of plants, including grape seeds, cranberries, peanut skin, lemon tree bark and citrus peels.
Masquelier termed the active ingredients of the pine bark pycnogenols, which today are referred to in the scientific community as oligomeric proanthocyanidins, or OPCs.
The History of OPC-3
In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier was leading an expedition up the St. Lawrence River. Trapped by bad weather, Cartier and his crew were forced to survive on a ration of salted meats and biscuits. Cartier's crew began to suffer from a severe deficiency of vitamin C and showed symptoms of scurvy.
Many crew members dies before the surviving members encountered a friendly Native American who saved most of their lives. He told them to make a tea from the bark and the needles of the pine tree to cure their malady. They complied and, as a result, Cartier and many crew members survived.
Some 400 years, Professor Jacques Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux, France, read a book by Cartier detailing the expedition. He concluded that pine bark not only contained vitamin C, but obviously was a good source of bioflavonoids, whose effects are similar to vitamin C.
Further studies and research revealed that the pine bark contained and entire complex of proanthocyanidin complexes found not only in the pine bark but in a variety of plants, including grape seeds, cranberries, peanut skin, lemon tree bark and citrus peels.
Masquelier termed the active ingredients of the pine bark pycnogenols, which today are referred to in the scientific community as oligomeric proanthocyanidins, or OPCs.