The word is on the tip of your tongue and it stays there. Your hands are cold at the same time, and you never connected the two. You bought ginkgo because that is the one people name for this. What most bottles contain is dried leaf, which is not what any of the research used.
Ginkgo is one of the most copied labels in the store. 24 of the 27 we read print exactly the same number: 120 mg of leaf extract standardized to 24% flavone glycosides, because that is the extract the supplement trade buys by the drum. It is a defensible number and it is where the category floor sits. It is also where the ceiling sits, which is the strange part. Almost nobody goes above it, and almost nobody explains why they stopped.
The second thing the aisle skips is the pairing. Several of the memory studies people cite when they buy ginkgo were not run on ginkgo alone. They were run on ginkgo together with a standardized Panax ginseng, and the combination is what was being measured. 22 of the 27 labels sell ginkgo by itself. Of the five that add a second botanical, most reach for eleuthero or gotu kola, which are different plants in the same aisle with no ginsenoside number on the panel.
The third thing is the shell and the filler, and it sorts the cheap bottles fast. 9 of the 27 still use a gelatin capsule, which rules out a vegetarian routine for a plant extract. Several print a flavone glycoside form with no percentage attached, which means you are trusting the front of the bottle. One formula of 27 printed 720 mg of ginkgo per serving, 120 mg of it standardized to 24% flavones, next to 700 mg of Red Asian ginseng at 7% ginsenosides.
Tried ginkgo and felt nothing? Look at what was next to it.A 120 mg capsule of ginkgo on its own is the version most people have tried, and it is the version most of the disappointment comes from. Read three things. The milligrams of ginkgo. The standardization percentage. And whether a second botanical is there with a percentage of its own. If the panel is one line, you bought the aisle default.