 |
| Ginkgo plant available at: http://jkmpic.blogspot.com |
This popular herbal supplement may slightly improve your memory, but you can get the same effect by eating a candy bar.
The ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) is remarkable in many ways.
Although indigenous to Korea, China and Japan, Kashmir, Pakistan the tree can be found in
parks and along city sidewalks around the world. It may grow as high as
40 meters and live for more than 1,000 years. Ginkgo fossils have been
dated as far back as 250 million years ago, and Charles Darwin referred
to the tree as "a living fossil."Nowadays, however, the ginkgo's primary
claim to fame is the extract obtained from its fan-shaped leaves.
The use of ginkgo leaf extracts can be traced
back for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine. Today ginkgo biloba
is perhaps the most widely used herbal treatment aimed at augmenting
cognitive functions--that is, improving memory, learning, alertness,
mood and so on. Ginkgo is especially popular in Europe; officials in
Germany recently approved the extract for treating dementia. In the U.S.
the National Institute on Aging is currently supporting a clinical
trial to evaluate the efficacy of ginkgo in treating the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
