Ginkgo

Ginkgo: what was it used for?

In Chinese medicine, the seed; in Europe, an extract of the leaf for the circulation and the memory. Stuart records that the seeds, with a somewhat fishy taste, “are supposed to benefit asthma, coughs, irritability of the bladder,” and uterine fluxes, that cooked they were thought digestive and good against worms, and that the Japanese used them likewise to promote digestion.

Ginkgo: what does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts a defined dry extract of the leaf, made with 60 per cent acetone, on clinical evidence, as ‘well-established use,’ for the improvement of age-associated cognitive impairment and of quality of life in mild dementia, and the powdered leaf as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for heavy legs and cold hands and feet in minor circulatory disorders, once a doctor has excluded serious conditions (monograph of 2015). Its assessment report names the ginkgolides and bilobalide and the flavonoids as characteristic constituents, with ginkgolic acids among the minor ones. The Cochrane review of 2026, of 82 trials in 10,613 people, divides the cognitive claim: in dementia there may be small to moderate benefits at six months for global status, cognition, and daily living, on low-certainty evidence, while in mild cognitive impairment ginkgo probably has little or no effect. Other Cochrane reviews found no clinically significant benefit in intermittent claudication (2013), little to no effect on tinnitus on very uncertain evidence (2022), and an unanswered question in macular degeneration (2013).

Ginkgo: what did the older authorities say?

Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica (1911)

“In the second month the tree blooms with a greenish-white bud, which opens in the night and quickly drops off, so that men rarely see the flower on the tree.” The Chinese said that seeds with three ridges grew into male trees and those with two into female, so both kinds should be planted together. The nuts were eaten at weddings, their shells dyed red, and much used at feasts.