The Cognitive Effects of Ginkgo biloba on Mice

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ABSTRACT Ginkgo biloba is one of many natural herbal remedies that have been used to avail several different sicknesses. There is already over the counter medication made from Ginkgo biloba that is given to humans, yet any conclusive evidence that Ginkgo biloba is beneficial to its applied illnesses has yet to be conclusively proven. Our goal is to find definitive results in whether Ginkgo biloba has an effect on improving cognitive abilities by analyzing a mouse model. In order to test their cognitive advancements we utilized a maze for them to run through. If the mice ran faster times it would be indicative to an increase in cognitive ability. The experiment was run over a period of 13 days with daily injections of Ginkgo biloba given interperitoneally and mazes were run three times a week. Ultimately, in the end the null hypothesis was correct and we were not able to measure a significant increase in cognitive ability due to the injections of Ginkgo biloba. INTRODUCTION The Ginkgo biloba tree represents the only remaining species of the order Ginkgoales of class Gymnospermae that existed during the time of the dinosaurs a little more than 200 million years ago, and is one of the oldest thriving trees on the planet which is why it is known as a “living fossil”(DeFeudis & Drieu, 2000; Smith & Lou, 2003). The first writing that was publicized covering the internal use of the Ginkgo biloba tree leaves for medical purposes dates back to 1505 A.D (DeFeudis & Drieu, 2000; Smith & Lou, 2003). The Ginkgo bilboa extract, EGb 761, consist of 24% flavonols glycosides (kaempferol, Quercetin and isoharmnetin), and 6%terpene lactones: ginkgolide A, ginkgolide B, ginkgolide C, ginkgolide M, ginkgolide J, and bilobalide B (DeFeudis & Drieu, 2000; Smith & Lou, 2003). In today’s society EGB 761 is


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