Ginkgo Biloba - Botanical Medicines

Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo biloba is an ancient Chinese tree whose leaves contain flavonoids that appear to enhance functioning of the adrenal and thyroid glands and the central nervous system. Ginkgo flavonoids are extremely potent antioxidants that are also capable of improving the flow of blood to the brain. In one clinical trial, reported by Dr. G. Rai in a 1991 issue of Current Medical Research & Opinion , 112 elderly patients with chronic cerebral insufficiency were daily given 120 milligrams of Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE). The extract significantly regressed the major symptoms of vascular insufficiency. Rai believes that a reduced blood and oxygen supply to the brain may be the major causative factor of the so-called age-related cerebral disorders (including senility), rather than a true degenerative process of nerve tissue. Ginkgo biloba extract, by increasing blood flow to the brain and improving glucose utilization, offers relief from these presumed side effects of aging. Rai concludes that Ginkgo biloba extract may be helpful in treating senility, including Alzheimer's disease.

Another extract of Ginkgo biloba (Egb), produced in Austria, has been shown to be a free radical scavenger. It also decreases platelet aggregation, protects against ischemia, inhibits cerebral edema, and enhances cerebral blood flow. Dr. G. Hitzenberger, writing in a 1992 issue of Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , states: “Clinically EGb has proven favorable effects on intellectual deficiency, equilibrium disturbances and peripheral artery occlusions.”