Ginkgo biloba
A leaf extract from an ancient tree, best known as a memory supplement.
- Memory and concentration
- Tinnitus and dizziness
- Eyes and vision
A plain-English overview, not advice. Written from published reviews and trials and from what people say in public forums.
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On this page
What is ginkgo biloba?
Ginkgo biloba is an ancient tree with no close living relatives, and it is the leaf that supplements are made from. Reviewers describe it as the herbal extract most often put to the test in research on memory and thinking, and sales of ginkgo products worldwide are estimated in the billions each year. What you buy is usually capsules or tablets of extract, concentrated so that the flavonoids, the plant’s largest family of active compounds, make up a stated percentage of it, and occasionally the milled dried leaf instead. In Britain it sits on the shelf as a memory supplement, and that is mostly what it is bought for.
Why do people take ginkgo biloba?
Memory and concentration
The thinking. Memory is the reason most people reach for ginkgo: names going astray, or concentration that used to hold and no longer does. The thinking is about blood flow. Reviews describe the leaf extract easing the supply of blood to the brain, and the idea is that the parts doing the remembering are then better served.
What research has found. A review pooling 82 studies and more than 10,600 people found little or no difference from placebo at six months in adults with mild memory trouble. A comparison of 29 trials in 2,100 healthy adults found no significant differences in attention or processing speed, and a five-year trial in nearly 2,900 adults over 70 who had noticed their memory slipping tracked how many went on to a dementia diagnosis, and found no clear difference. This is one of the best-studied uses, and several reviews of trials broadly agree.
Tinnitus and dizziness
The thinking. Tinnitus is hearing a sound that has no outside source, and in England alone it is the main complaint at an estimated three-quarters of a million GP appointments a year. It often arrives with dizziness, and both grow more common with age. The thinking here is the blood-flow idea again, carried to the ear.
What research has found. Two reviews reach different conclusions. One pooled 12 trials in 1,915 people and found ginkgo may make little or no difference to tinnitus severity against placebo, rating its own certainty in that as low to very low. The other pooled five trials in older adults who had tinnitus and dizziness alongside a diagnosis of dementia, and found both scores fell further on the extract than on a placebo. Studies here point in different directions, so this one is still being worked out; the dose, how long people took it and who took part all seem to matter.
Eyes and vision
The thinking. A smaller group buy ginkgo with their eyes in mind, and the reasoning is circulation once more: the idea that whatever eases the flow of blood elsewhere reaches the eye as well. The testing has mostly been done in adults with glaucoma, where pressure inside the eye and the extent of the visual field are measured routinely.
What research has found. A review gathering eight studies in 428 adults found no change in eye pressure or in visual field measures, either from where people started or against the comparison groups. A small crossover trial, in which 35 adults each took the extract and a placebo in turn, found no difference in visual field or in contrast sensitivity, which is how well faint edges are picked out. A fair body of trials has looked at this, and most point the same way.
What does ginkgo biloba do in the body?
Ginkgo is not a nutrient the body runs short of. It is a leaf with a large mixture of compounds in it: reviewers have catalogued around 110 flavonoids with settled structures, alongside the terpene trilactones, the ginkgolides, which are found in this tree and almost nowhere else. What is sold is that leaf concentrated into an extract, which is why a label states a percentage.
Reviews describe several actions at once rather than one. The one named most often is scavenging free radicals, the reactive molecules cells throw off; alongside that they list anti-inflammatory and antiplatelet effects, platelets being the blood cells that clot, and report effects on the blood supply to the brain. They also say plainly that how much of each compound a leaf holds shifts with where the tree grew, how old it is and when the leaves were picked, which is why extracts are standardised at all.
What do people say about taking ginkgo biloba?
These are anecdotes people have shared, not evidence.
What people like
- A minority say the ringing grew quieter, and one or two describe it coming back when they stopped and settling again once they restarted.
- Some report brain fog lifting or feeling a bit sharper, most often around the menopause, and say that was what they noticed first.
- A handful have taken it for many years and stay with it, preferring to keep going rather than find out what stopping would do.
- Several like that it is easy to buy and easy to keep up, so they are willing to give it a long, patient trial.
Common complaints
- Noticing nothing at all is by far the commonest report: in every thread most of the people who tried it saw no change.
- Tinnitus getting louder rather than quieter comes up repeatedly, usually within the first few days, and several stopped because of it.
- Some feel it is expensive for what it does, and others suspect the weaker shelf versions are too dilute to judge fairly.
- Bleeding worries surface occasionally, one long-term user putting his nosebleeds down to the thinning effect it is said to have.
- Several took it alongside three or four other supplements at once and say they cannot tell what, if anything, was doing the work.
How people take it
- Capsules once or twice a day are usual, in the range of 60 mg to 240 mg, with 120 mg and 240 mg named most.
- People very commonly give it weeks rather than days: a month is the shortest trial suggested and three months a common plan.
- It is often taken alongside other things, magnesium, zinc and B vitamins most often, which makes any single effect hard to separate.
- A few use a liquid tincture counted out in drops instead of capsules, and several say the strength of the extract matters.
- Several stop and restart deliberately to test whether it is doing anything, while a few gave up within days and never returned.
Read from these public discussions:
- anyone take gingko biloba? (Mumsnet, 2008)
- Ginkgo Biloba (Tinnitus Talk, 2013)
- Vitamin B Complex and Ginkgo Good for Tinnitus? (Tinnitus Talk, 2015)
- Have You Ever Taken Ginkgo Biloba for 6 Weeks? (Tinnitus Talk, 2017)
- Ginkgo Biloba for Pulsatile Tinnitus (Tinnitus Talk, 2018)
- If you can't take HRT how do you manage menopause symptoms (Mumsnet, 2024)
What forms of ginkgo biloba are there?
| Form | What’s different | Per serving, on products we list |
|---|---|---|
| Standardised extract (24/6) | Leaf concentrated into an extract with a fixed 24 % of flavone glycosides, the plant’s main family of compounds. | 120 mg to 10 g |
| Unstandardised leaf | The dried leaf itself, milled rather than concentrated, so how much of each compound it carries varies. | not in our price tables yet |
What else is worth knowing about ginkgo biloba?
- Trials used 60 mg to 240 mg of standardised extract a day, and sometimes more; 120 mg twice a day was the amount in the longest of them, and one eye trial used 40 mg three times a day. Labels give the amount per serving, and a serving may be more than one capsule.
- How much of each compound a leaf holds varies with the region, the age of the tree and when it was picked, which is why most products state a standardised percentage and why milled leaf is harder to compare. Reviewers also note that it is the leaf that is used: ginkgo seeds carry compounds they describe as toxic and allergenic.
- Bleeding is the caution raised most often. Reviews describe the extract acting on platelets, the cells that clot blood, and report serious interactions when it is combined with other medicines, and adverse effects at high doses or with long use. In the trials it did not show up: four tinnitus trials in over 1,100 people found no difference from placebo in bleeding or seizures, and the five-year trial in nearly 2,900 older adults found bleeding and circulatory events no more common than on placebo.
- Most of this research ran for three to six months, the five-year trial aside, and reviewers rated much of its certainty as low, chiefly because trials were small or thinly reported. The eye studies were in adults with glaucoma; the tinnitus reviews took in children as well as adults.
If you take medication, are pregnant, or have a health condition, check with a pharmacist or GP first.
The research behind this page (13 studies)
- Ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia. (2026, meta-analysis)
- Comparative effects of Bacopa monnieri and Ginkgo biloba on cognitive functions: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. (2026, systematic review)
- Long-term use of standardised Ginkgo biloba extract for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (GuidAge): a randomised placebo-controlled trial. (2012, randomised trial)
- Ginkgo biloba for tinnitus. (2022, systematic review)
- Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761 ® alleviates neurosensory symptoms in patients with dementia: a meta-analysis of treatment effects on tinnitus and dizziness in randomized, placebo-controlled trials. (2018, meta-analysis)
- Efficacy of Ginkgo biloba on parameters in glaucoma: A systematic review. (2025, systematic review)
- Effect of Ginkgo biloba on visual field and contrast sensitivity in Chinese patients with normal tension glaucoma: a randomized, crossover clinical trial. (2014, randomised trial)
- Neuroprotective and Antioxidant Effect of Ginkgo biloba Extract Against AD and Other Neurological Disorders. (2019, review)
- Advances in the chemical constituents and chemical analysis of Ginkgo biloba leaf, extract, and phytopharmaceuticals. (2021, review)
- Ginkgo biloba : A Treasure of Functional Phytochemicals with Multimedicinal Applications. (2022, review)
- Structure, synthesis, biosynthesis, and activity of the characteristic compounds from Ginkgo biloba L. (2022, review)
- The Potential of Ginkgo biloba as a Source of Biologically Active Compounds-A Review of the Recent Literature and Patents. (2023, review)
- Ginkgo biloba in the Aging Process: A Narrative Review. (2022, review)
How much does ginkgo biloba cost?
That depends on the form and the pack, so we work out the price of the same dose of every ginkgo biloba product we can find and rank them.