Numerous studies have found Ginkgo biloba extract could offer the body some protection from the oxidative damage caused by free radicals.

Slowing the ageing process could potentially be as simple as taking a daily dose of a potent Ginkgo biloba extract. While there is obviously more involved in holding back the hands of time than taking a pill (such as good diet, exercise and protecting your skin from the sun), research published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals has shown that a potent form of Ginkgo biloba extract can slow the rate at which our mitochondrial DNA unravels due to oxidative damage. The idea that damage to our mitochondrial DNA might be the root of the ageing process was suggested as long ago as 1956 by Professor Denham Harman of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in a paper published in the Journal of Gerontology.

Professor Harman followed that with a series of papers, including one in 1972 that was published in Journal of the American Geriatric Society, in which he proposed that oxidative damage to our DNA, caused by free radicals, was the root cause of ageing.

This work resulted in Professor Harman becoming known as the ‘father of the free radical theory of ageing'. He is a living testament to his work on anti-ageing. At the age of 93 Professor Harman is still working and walks several kilometres every day.

Where Ginkgo biloba fits into the picture is that subsequent research by other academics and medical doctors has shown that Ginkgo biloba extract is a powerful antioxidant, which offers the body a degree of protection from the oxidative damage caused by free radicals.

A free radical is formed when molecules weakened by the loss of electrons split. Free radicals are usually formed by the body's metabolism and are so unstable that they do not survive for more than an instant, but factors such as pollution, herbicides and cigarette smoke can cause production to become excessive. The result is damage to the structure of our DNA and accelerated ageing.

Because free radicals are deficient in electrons, they try to steal them from nearby molecules. By this process nearby cells are also turned into free radicals, which can begin a cascade that results in the disruption of a living cell.

This, according to the theory, is how and why we age. The Ginkgo biloba extract that has been the subject of much of the published research into the anti-ageing potential of the compound is a German one called EGb 761, which is made by Dr Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals and sold under the brand name Tebonin.

According to the authoritative American Herbal Pharmacopoeia EGb 761 was the first Ginkgo biloba leaf extract produced by modern Western pharmaceutical science, when in 1965 Dr Willmar Schwabe III identified the therapeutic compounds and developed a process to extract, purify and concentrate them into a therapeutic dose.

The molecular chains inside Ginkgo biloba that do the beneficial work are called flavonol glycosides and terpene trilactones. To date most of the research done on the benefit of Ginkgo biloba extract on DNA has been on rats, because hospital and university ethics committees tend to frown on research that involves taking tissue samples from the internal organs of human subjects, if only because this generally requires the death of the subjects.

It is far easier and presents fewer ethnical problems for researchers to use rats, to which they can administer Ginkgo biloba extract and then kill at a predetermined time to take the required tissue samples.

A study led by Professor Walter E. Muller, of the Department of Biology at the University of Frankfurt, which was published in the journal Alternative Complementary Therapies, found that Ginkgo biloba extract had a strong protective effect on the mitochondrial DNA of brain cells that had been subjected to blood supply deprivation and to toxic chemical stress caused by the drug sodium nitroprusside, which caused sudden and large decreases in blood pressure.

A paper by Professor Juan Sastre, of the University of Valencia, which was published in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine reported that the mitochondrial DNA of the brains and livers of rats that were given Ginkgo biloba extract showed less oxidative damage than the DNA of rats in the control group.

For this experiment the brains and livers of old rats that had been given Ginkgo biloba extract throughout their lives were compared with those of young rats. What he found was that the mitochondrial DNA in the brains of the old rats that had been given Ginkgo biloba showed markedly less deterioration than the DNA of old rats in the control group.

Professor Sastre speculated that by reducing the oxidative damage the ‘physiological impairment associated with ageing' may be delayed. The damaging effect of sunburn on the skin could also be reduced by Ginkgo biloba extract, a study conducted by a team from the Department of Pharmacology of the medical school at Gaziantep University in Turkey found.

The team was lead by Associate Professor Mehtap Ozkur and their paper was published in the journal Photodermatology Photoimmunology & Photomedicine. Professor Ozkur wrote that free radicals were involved in inflammatory skin reactions induced by ultraviolet B (UVB) light. This is a technical term for sunburn. What the research team found was that the rats that had been given Ginkgo biloba extract were less prone to burn and that when they did burn they healed faster.

ACSM #47