HOME › FORMULAS › INGREDIENTS › GINKGO BILOBA
Ginkgo biloba
A standardised leaf extract that the EU looks at twice: the EMA assesses it as an herbal medicine, while its health claim as a food, like most botanical claims, is still on hold. It is in one of our formulas, at half the monograph's daily dose, and it slows your platelets down, which is behind most of what follows on this page.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Nothing yet. The claim is on hold.
Ginkgo has no authorised health claim under Regulation (EU) 432/2012. Like most botanical claims, it sits on the European Commission's on-hold list, where botanicals have waited since 2010 for an EFSA assessment. Until that ends, we make no health claim for it, and you will not find one on this page.Ginkgo has no authorised health claim under Regulation (EU) 432/2012. Like most botanical claims, it is on hold, waiting for an EFSA assessment. Until then, we make no health claim for it.
The EMA monograph assesses a standardised ginkgo leaf extract as an herbal medicine, at 120–240 mg a dose and 240 mg a day, taken for at least 8 weeks. That is a medicines assessment, not a food claim, and we do not borrow its wording for a food supplement.
WHY A STANDARDISED EXTRACT
No salt to choose. A standard to meet.
Ginkgo is a plant, so the choice is not between salts but about what the extract is standardised to. We specify a refined leaf extract at 24% flavonoid glycosides and 6% terpene lactones. It stays stable in a liquid, which our device needs, though it has to be kept away from light and it tastes bitter.
Quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin, bound to sugars. The standard for a refined extract is 22 to 27%; we specify 24%.
Ginkgolides A, B and C, and bilobalide. Ginkgolide B is the one that slows your platelets down. We specify 6%.
The part of the leaf that causes allergic reactions and is genotoxic. A refined extract removes it, and we require a certificate of analysis that shows it.
There is no authorised claim for any ginkgo extract, standardised or not, so the standard is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. It fixes what is in each 120 mg, and it keeps out the part of the leaf that causes allergic reactions.There is no authorised claim for any ginkgo extract, standardised or not. The standard fixes what is in each 120 mg, and keeps the allergenic part of the leaf out.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries ginkgo.
It is in Cognitive & focus, a morning booster, at 120 mg. That sits inside the 120–240 mg single dose of the EMA monograph, but it is half its 240 mg a day, and half the lowest effective dose our library lists. We would rather say so than let the name do the work.
THE CEILING
No upper limit set. We use 240 mg a day.
EFSA has not set a tolerable upper intake level for ginkgo extract, and the EMA monograph gives a daily dose, not a limit. So the engine uses that daily dose as its own ceiling: 240 mg a day, added up across every formula in your plan. Today only one formula carries it, at 120 mg.EFSA has not set an upper limit for ginkgo extract. The engine uses the EMA daily dose as its own ceiling: 240 mg a day, across every formula in your plan.
Ginkgo from every formula in your plan counts towards the same 240 mg a day. With one formula at 120 mg, you are at half of it.
Stop it at least two weeks before any planned surgery or invasive procedure. Ginkgo slows your platelets down, and that is the warning on our label.
Not for you if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, have heart disease or a heart rhythm problem, haemophilia or another bleeding disorder, epilepsy or a history of seizures, or an allergy to ginkgo, or if you take an anticoagulant or an antiplatelet. Declared allergen: tree nuts (Reg. (EU) 1169/2011, Annex II). Ask a doctor first if you have a cashew or pistachio allergy, which the leaf can cross-react with, liver disease, or are in cancer treatment. It can cause stomach upset, headache, dizziness and mild palpitations.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Ginkgo is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented 16 of them so far, out of the 443 pairs on file, and most come back to bleeding. Vitamin E, resveratrol, maritime pine bark, bromelain and papain all add to its effect on platelets and are flagged when they share a plan. Ginger does too at high doses, but at the dose we use the risk is documented as low. L-arginine is only kept apart from it if you take an anticoagulant or an antiplatelet; otherwise the pair is monitored. Bacopa, Panax ginseng and inulin are classed as compatible.
Turmeric and black garlic slow your platelets down as well; St John's wort speeds up how your body clears ginkgo. Our library classes all three as incompatible. Turmeric only shares a plan below 120 mg of ginkgo and 100 mg of curcumin, and the three formulas that carry it hold 500 mg.
Psyllium and glucomannan form a gel that slows absorption, so they are kept one and two hours away. Activated charcoal binds the polyphenols in the extract: never in the same dose, and at least three hours apart.
Not with warfarin, aspirin or clopidogrel: the bleeding risk adds up. Not with anticonvulsants such as phenytoin, valproate or carbamazepine either: ginkgo can lower their levels, which can lead to a seizure. The EMA monograph advises against it with efavirenz, an HIV medicine, and it can raise the levels of nifedipine and similar blood pressure medicines, so your blood pressure needs watching. Ask a doctor first if you take diabetes medication, NSAIDs, SSRIs, trazodone or thiazide diuretics. The app asks about medication before this ingredient is ever assigned.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
Every one of them has a page like this.
What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.