This is the oldest species in the plant kingdom. In fact, as Darwin said, it's a veritable "living fossil". It belongs to a group of plants that developed in the Carboniferous period, during the great age of giant horsetails, 200 to 250 million years ago.
It also has the advantage of being a tree that can age for millennia. It therefore combines the longevity of the species with that of the individual. Examples abound to demonstrate ginkgo 's inextinguishable resilience: no insect feeds on its leaves and fruit, it resists fungus, and it withstands atmospheric and soil pollution. A ginkgo burnt during the atomic explosion in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 produced a shoot the following spring!
Ginkgo 's persistence can also be explained by the length of its reproductive period, although it becomes sexually mature between 40 and 70 years of age. As such, it is a botanical curiosity. It produces no flowers, fruit or seeds. What is considered to be the fruit of the ginkgo is nothing more than an enormous ovule, which may or may not be fertilized if a male tree happens to be around. Like an oviparous animal, the ginkgo lays eggs! In this respect, it differs from viviparous plants.
As a result, this sacred tree planted near Asian temples and pagodas has demonstrated its ability to withstand the test of time.
The butter-yellow foliage falls over a very short period, giving rise to one of ginkgo's nicknames, the "1,000-ecu tree", although the number of ecus is estimated at 40! This name is directly linked to ginkgo's arrival in Europe in the 18th century. After passing through Holland and England, ginkgo put down roots on French soil in the 1770s. The first ginkgo planted in France (1778) was in Montpellier, 3 rue du Carré du Roi, so it was still a very young tree.
It was, of course, Chinese medicine that first took an interest in ginkgo's therapeutic virtues. Chen Nong described it as a circulatory stimulant 2,700 BC.
On his arrival in Europe, Linnaeus described it in detail, and Goethe sang the praises of its two-lobed leaves in a poem and had some grown in his garden.
Pharmacological research did not begin until the early 20th century. In 1936, a Hungarian doctor, Szent Györgyi, demonstrated the presence and role of the famous flavonoids contained in ginkgo leaves.
Since then, therapeutic applications have multiplied, to such an extent that this primitive tree offers hope for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
This deciduous tree is native to the forests of central China, where it flourishes between 400 and 1,200 m altitude. It requires a humid climate, but cannot tolerate temperatures below 2°C during the cold season. It thrives in rich, sandy, well-exposed soils.
While the seeds are still used in Asia, it's the leaves that are of particular interest to Western pharmacopoeia. Ginkgo has a general action on the blood system (promotes microcirculation, veinotonic, vasodilator, blood thinner, etc.). It can therefore be used to treat the following vascular and venous disorders: venous insufficiency of the lower limbs, arteritis of the lower limbs, varicose veins and edemas of the lower limbs, hemorrhoids, cerebral and peripheral arterial circulation deficiencies. In the latter case, ginkgo affects memory, concentration, reflexes, alertness and mood.
As an antioxidant, ginkgo fights cellular aging (ginkgo is the subject of studies on the prevention of aging. It may protect our cell's energy powerhouses, the mitochondria, from free radicals).
The plant can be combined with other veinotonics such as fragon, red vine and horse chestnut for venous circulation. As for its action on concentration and memory, it can be combined with periwinkle.
Known or presumed mode of action:
Ginkgo biloba is listed in the French Pharmacopoeia list A (leaf).
An extract standardized in flavonoids (24%) and ginkgolides-bilobalides (6%) from ginkgo biloba leaves has been tested in dozens of human trials, leading to its use infunctional cerebral insufficiency in the elderly, characterized by cognitive (memory, concentration, attention) andmood disorders, headaches and loss of energy. Specialties containing this compound are offered orally as a corrective treatment for symptoms of intellectual impairment in the elderly, in certain vertiginous and tinnitus syndromes, in certain hearing impairment and in retinal deficits of presumed ischemic origin. They are also indicated in the symptomatic treatment of intermittent claudication in stage II chronic obliterative arteriopathy of the lower limbs. Ginkgo is present in specialties indicated for the treatment of symptoms associated with venolymphatic insufficiency and/or hemorrhoidal crisis.
For theWHO and the German Commission E, the use of ginkgo leaf extracts is clinically proven, as an adjuvant treatment of symptoms, to symptomatically treat mild to moderate cerebral deficits linked to senile dementia of degenerative vascular origin, the manifestations of which they describe.
According to theEMA, the use of ginkgo biloba is clinically well established for improving cognitive impairment (age-related) and quality of life in mild dementia. The European agency adds that the plant is traditionally used to relieve leg heaviness and the sensation of cold hands and feet associated with minor circulatory disorders, after a serious condition has been ruled out by a doctor. Standardized ginkgo biloba leaf extract has been included in the recommendations for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease by the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP).
Ginkgo biloba has been the subject of so many studies that it's impossible to list them all. It is one of the most studied plants, and one of those with the highest level of evidence. As knowledge of its complex and comprehensive neuro-vascular mode of action grows each year, as well as its connective tissue-protective properties (inhibition of MPP metallo-enzymes, modulation of proteoglycans, regulation of the secretion of certain pro-inflammatory cytokines), new properties are regularly attributed to it.
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