The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7232 p81
18 January 2003

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Letters to the Editor

Women's health

Cranberry tablets/capsules are no substitute for juice

From Professor R. Corder, MRPharmS

There is a clear need for more research on herbal medicines to ensure maximum benefit can be obtained from such therapies. Hence I found Dr Jo Barnes's article (PDF 80K) on "Women's health" (PJ, 4 January, pp16–18) to be interesting and timely since it covered a number of important areas.

To establish the value of these herbal preparations it is important that pharmacists play a key role in verifying the quality and efficacy of available preparations. For this reason I think it should be emphasised that cranberry tablets or capsules are no substitute for cranberry juice. Typical preparations are made from 3,000mg to 5,000mg fresh cranberries (sic), which represents three to five whole cranberries. You do not need to be a mathematician to calculate how little juice can be extracted from such limited starting material. Moreover, research in my laboratory has shown the recoverable proanthocyanidin contents of five different commercial tablet/ capsule preparations to be equivalent to 0.1ml to 2.5ml cranberry juice per dose. Hence, a glass of cranberry juice cocktail, even as a 25 per cent dilution, offers 25- to 600-fold more proanthocyanidins with the added benefit of the diuresis caused by consumption of the liquid formulation. In my opinion cranberry tablets or capsules should never be recommended as an alternative to juice.

The sugar content may be a problem for some, but "light" versions are also marketed. I think this further highlights how much more needs to be done in this area to develop the optimal formulation and demonstrate its efficacy for preventing urinary tract infections through properly controlled clinical trials.

Roger Corder
Professor of Experimental Therapeutics
William Harvey Research Institute,
London

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