Aboriginal women used maple syrup as a medication for bronchial ailments, particularly during the alternating warm and cold days of spring. Its caloric and nutritional properties are undeniable:

"When oppressed by a great famine, the natives eat the scrapings or bark of a certain tree that they call ‘michtan’ which they cut open in the spring so as to draw out a juice as sweet as honey…"

recounts Father Lejeune in the Jesuit Relations of occurrences in New France on the great St. Lawrence River in 1634.

Maple syrup contains significant amounts of minerals, including zinc and iron, and compounds found in B complex vitamins, mostly thiamine. Just 50 milliliters (about 3 tablespoons) of maple syrup provide 4% of the daily recommended amount of calcium, 3% of potassium, and 2% of daily magnesium and riboflavin requirements. Recent studies have also shown that maple sap contains phenolic and flavonoid acids with important antioxidant and organoleptic properties.