In 1535, a French explorer by the name of Jacques Cartier found himself ice-bound on the St. Lawrence River. Along with the rest of the crew, he developed symptoms of vitamin-C deficiency.
Luckily, the Native Americans told them about a tea prepared from the bark of a certain tree, which miraculously led to complete recovery.
Almost 400 years later, Dr. Jacques Masquelier from France came across Cartier’s account and started to look for the active ingredients from the bark of the French Maritime Pine. He later extracted proanthocyanidins from the European coastal pine tree, which he named “Pycnogenol.”
This key chemical, proanthocyanidin, is also found in high concentrations in apples, cranberries, coca, grapes, and red wine.
Medicine Tribe 