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Ginkgo Offers No Mental Benefit, Study Says
By Reuters Tue Aug 20, 2002
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CHICAGO (Reuters) -
If you think taking ginkgo will sharpen
your memory, forget it, a study released on Tuesday said.
Ginkgo, the tree extract extolled as a memory booster, does
nothing to improve memory or mental sharpness, psychologists
from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, said.
"The results of this six-week study indicate that ginkgo,
marketed over-the-counter as a memory enhancer, did not enhance
performance on standard neuropsychological tests of learning,
memory, naming and verbal fluency, or attention and
concentration," the report published in this week's issue of
the Journal of the American Medical Association said.
The 203 people who completed the study, which was supported
by grants from the National Institute on Aging and two
foundations, were all over age 60 and in good mental health.
Half took the recommended dosage of 40 milligrams of ginkgo
three times daily for at least four weeks, while the rest took
a placebo.
The subjects were also rated by friends and relatives, who
noticed no appreciable changes in their mental acuity, wrote
study author Paul Solomon.
Supporters of herbal remedies countered that the latest
study was just one among dozens, many of which have shown
ginkgo can help sharpen the mind, especially in those suffering
mild to moderate mental impairment.
"When taken by mentally impaired older adults, ginkgo
produced significant improvements in short-term memory and
combined scores on cognitive tests," Michael McGuffin,
president of the American Herbal Products Association, said in
a telephone interview.
The latest study reflected a "lack of consensus" on
ginkgo's usefulness, which McGuffin said has been shown to
contain flavonoids and terpenes that likely improve blood
circulation to the body and brain.
McGuffin faulted the research for not altering the dosage
and the length of the study, adding there was a long history of
antagonism between the medical establishment and believers in
herbal remedies.
Some herbalists prefer to make their own herbal treatments
from natural ingredients, he said, which might have a more
pronounced effectiveness. Ginkgo is extracted from the leaves
of the ginkgo tree, McGuffin said.
"This study should not be viewed as the definitive word on
the subject, but simply one more addition to an extensive
amount of scientific information, much of it positive, on
ginkgo," John Cardellina of The Council for Responsible
Nutrition, a trade association for the dietary supplement
industry, said in a statement responding to the study.
