MORE THAN A FUNNY NAME

By Christine Gorman

South America was still attached to Africa and dinosaurs had not yet evolved when the first ginkgo trees appeared on Earth some 230 million years ago. Charles Darwin called them living fossils. The plants are so primitive that they do not produce flowers and yet so hardy that one survived the atomic blast that destroyed Hiroshima. The Chinese have venerated the ginkgo's foul-smelling fruit for thousands of years, using it for everything from promoting longevity to increasing sexual endurance. And in the past decade, extract of ginkgo has become one of Europe's most widely prescribed drugs.

But no mention of the ancient remedy had ever appeared in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association--until last week. The first double-blind study in the U.S. on the effects of ginkgo, researchers say, proved that an extract of ginkgo has a small but measurable effect on dementia. "Ginkgo is no miracle," says Dr. Pierre LeBars, a neurologist at the New York Institute for Medical Research in Tarrytown, N.Y., and the study's principal investigator. "But we have some patients who have stabilized for four years."

The key seems to be a substance extracted from the leaves of young ginkgo trees that scientists have dubbed EGb 761. In Germany, where ginkgo sales topped $163 million last year, the extract has been the subject of hundreds of scientific studies, some even bigger than the one reported in JAMA. These studies show that among other things, EGb 761 helps keep platelets in the blood from clumping together. That's why ginkgo extract is prescribed in low doses (40 mg a day) in Europe for patients with circulatory problems. Much higher doses (240 mg a day) are used to treat dementia.

What makes the JAMA study particularly noteworthy is its rigorous design. The researchers started with 309 test subjects who either had Alzheimer's disease or had suffered a stroke. These were randomly divided into two groups. One was given 120 mg of ginkgo extract, the other a placebo. Neither the doctors nor their patients knew who had been given what until the end of the study. Meanwhile, researchers measured mental deterioration using three standardized tests. The improvements were modest--a few points, say, on a 70-point scale--and showed up in only two of the three tests, but because the precautions were so elaborate, scientists are confident that the results are real.

No one is suggesting that ginkgo will cure dementia or prevent Alzheimer's. At best, the benefit is limited to a third of patients. But the effect was most pronounced on the subjects who were the least impaired, suggesting that if Alzheimer's is treated early enough, dementia might be postponed.

Even so, don't rush out to your local health-food store to stock up on ginkgo pills. For one thing, not all ginkgo products are the same; many do not contain all the active ingredients. Besides, anyone experiencing memory lapses should first consult a physician. At the very least, your doctor can be on the lookout for possible adverse interactions with other drugs. You might also discover that your problems are actually caused by depression, malnutrition or some other condition that doesn't respond to ginkgo.

--By Christine Gorman. With reporting by Jordan Bonfante/Bonn

With reporting by JORDAN BONFANTE/BONN