Ginkgo biloba extract 10:1: leaf from a living fossil
The ginkgo is the last species of a plant group that stood across much of the planet during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Fossils of recognisable ginkgo leaves reach back more than two hundred million years, which is exactly why the tree is called a living fossil. China is its native ground; these days it grows in parks and along streets worldwide, since it copes unusually well with city air, paving and shifting conditions. The leaf gives it away at once: fan-shaped, with veins spreading out from the stalk and a notch down the middle. That split sits in the name, since biloba means two-lobed.
This extract is made from the dried green leaf, which naturally carries two groups of compounds that keep recurring in ginkgo: flavonol glycosides, derived from kaempferol, quercetin and isorhamnetin among others, and terpene lactones, the ginkgolides and bilobalide included. Biflavones sit alongside them. Levels vary with origin and with the individual tree; leaves from young trees and from male specimens generally measure higher than those from old or female ones.
What 10:1 means
In a 10:1 extract, ten grams of leaf have been reduced to one gram of powder, so you need less of it than of loose leaf. One thing worth knowing when comparing products: the pharmaceutical ginkgo preparations sold through European pharmacies are concentrated much further, with the United States Pharmacopeia specifying a ratio between 35:1 and 67:1 for those extracts along with fixed percentages of flavonol glycosides and terpene lactones. A 10:1 powder is therefore a different class of raw material, not a pharmacy preparation.
Use, storage and good to know
This is loose powder. The usual approach is to dissolve a small amount in hot water and let it steep for a few minutes; the taste is herbal and faintly bitter. Keep the jar cool, dry and dark, and out of reach of young children. If you take medication, are pregnant or are breastfeeding, speak to your doctor first. At Avalon Magic Plants ginkgo is also stocked as a liquid 1:1 extract, and the same category holds panax ginseng extract 20%, yerba mate extract 10:1, hops flower extract 10:1 and motherwort extract 12:1.
