Friday, February 02, 2007

Alzheimer's: then learn and use Ginkgo.

Over the next few days I am going to look at Ginkgo and how it can help with Alzeimer's.
To start here is what Wikpedia says about the tree:

The Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), frequently misspelled as "Gingko", and also known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique tree with no close living relatives. It is classified in its own division, the Ginkgophyta, comprising the single class Ginkgoopsida, order Ginkgoales, family Ginkgoaceae, genus Ginkgo and is the only extant species within this group. It is one of the best known examples of a living fossil. In the past it has also been placed in the divisions Spermatophyta or Pinophyta. Ginkgo is a gymnosperm plant (as opposed to an angiosperm), meaning "naked seed"; its seeds are not protected by an ovary wall. The apricot-like structures produced by female ginkgo trees are technically not fruits, but are the seeds having a shell that consists of a soft and fleshy section (the sarcotesta), and a hard section (the sclerotesta).
For centuries it was thought to be extinct in the wild, but is now known to grow wild in at least two small areas in Zhejiang province in eastern China, in the Tian Mu Shan Reserve. However, as this area has known human activity for over a thousand years, the wild status of ginkgos there is uncertain.

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