Finally, research has been done on some of the properties of Ginkgo Biloba and has shown that it minimises the damage to the brain caused by strokes. Daily doses of the age old Chinese remedy protect the brain as a preventive measure.
Ginkgo is the world's oldest living tree going back a 150 million years. After the last Ice Age, the plants were left only in China where they were cultivated around temples and monasteries. The tree is virtually impervious to pollution and is very hardy in scant surroundings. Where other plants give up, this hardy tree will still flourish.
The seeds of the fruit have been used for 5,000 years against age-related ills. Ginkgo contains a substance called ginkgolides which prevents blood vessels constricting, increases blood flow and reduces its clotting ability. It also reduces antioxidants while increasing the oxygen and nutrient supply to the central nervous system. It is widely used, apart from China and Japan, obviously, in Germany and France.
The study undertaken by John Hopkins Medical Institutions and published in Stroke Journal was carried out on mice. It showed that mice fed on the extract for a week before an artificially induced stroke suffered 50 per cent less brain damage. It is therefore obvious that the extract has an influence on stroke victims and a daily regimen of Ginkgo is a viable preventive measure against brain damage in case of a stroke.
A previous research had found that it improves the circulation of blood, in particular to the brain.
It is clear that further research into this plant is necessary and highly beneficent for stroke patients. We therefore can e sure that it will not happen by instigation of the pharmaceutical industry who will rather produce an artificial compound with lots of side effects. Strategically sound thinking, I say, as the side effects of today are the turn-over of tomorrow.
In the study, researchers gave extract to a group of normal mice and to a group of genetically engineered mice. The second group lacked a gene to produce an enzyme needed to respond to ginkgolides. After inducing an artificial stroke, it showed that the normal mice suffered 50 per cent less neurological dysfunction and had smaller areas of brain damage by 48 per cent.
The extract of Ginkgo does not work on bankers of politicians, as researchers have failed so far to find any brains at all in either.
