El Ginkgo biloba It grows mainly in China and Korea, and to a much lesser extent in the United States, the south of France, in some cities in Spain, and in certain parts of Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.
It is found in several provinces, and in the Federal Capital there are specimens in the old zoo, the Botanical Garden, the Parque neighborhood, in the Plaza Belgrano in the Belgrano neighborhood and in the Japanese Garden.
And it is immortal. Its origin dates back to 200,000,000 years ago and it was food for the dinosaurs. Scientists believed, at one point, that it had disappeared, but a German doctor, Engelbert Kaempfer, found it in 1691 in Japan.
It had also survived in China, in monasteries and Buddhist temple gardens, where it was cultivated since the year 1000. Then it spread by seed to Japan and Korea, and from there they were taken to Europe and in the 1700s to America.
He survived the atomic bomb
On August 6, 1945, the United States launched the atomic bomb against Hiroshima. The city was devastated after the explosion. Tens of thousands of people died and everything in a radius of more than 10 kilometers was devastated.
However, 1,000 meters from where the bomb fellsomething almost miraculous happened: a ginkgo specimen, located in the Housenbou temple, managed to survive.
And today it is still there, majestic.
When one sees the medicinal uses it has, the astonishment increases. Many doctors prescribe it to combat anxiety, Alzheimer, vision problems in people with diabetes, peripheral vascular disease (a disease that causes poor blood circulation in the legs), pre menstrual painschizophrenia, tardive dyskinesia (pathology that causes muscles to move involuntarily), vertigo and dizziness.
Also the sexual dysfunction, seasonal affective disorder (those people who suffer from depression with the change of season), asthmathe cocaine dependencehigh blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, ringing in the ears, heart disease, dyslexia, fibromyalgia, cancers such as colorectal, stomach, ovary and pancreas.
And the list also includes that fights hemorrhoidsmigraines, Raynard syndrome (a blood vessel disorder), seasonal allergic conjunctivitis, strokes, high cholesterol and arteriosclerosis. Improves memory, thinking speed and attention.
After that list you understand why he is considered, in addition to being immortal. as miraculous.
And now we know why it is immortal. A Japanese doctor who lived to be 105 years old, Dr. Hinohara, genetically analyzed ginkgo trees aged between 15 and 667 years in the United States and China, and discovered that their growth does not slow down even after they have passed hundreds of yearsand that the quality of the seeds was not affected by the passage of time.
All thanks to the chemicals it produces and that protect it as antioxidants, antimicrobes and protective hormones, and it also does not activate genes related to old ageas with any tree and plant.
In a new study, other conclusions are reached. «In humans, as we age, our immune system starts to not be as good,» he explained to The New York Times biologist Richard Dixon, from the University of North Texas. Making an equivalence, the immune system in these trees, «Despite being 1,000 years old, it looks like a 20-year-old person.».
The new research focused on the tree’s vascular cambium, a thin layer of tissue in the trunk that produces new bark and wood.
Secondary tree growth shows no decline for ginkgo trees from 10 to 600 years old. «It appears that the vascular cambium in biloba may retain the capacity for continuous growth for hundreds of years or even millennia«, conclude the new studies.
This means that ginkgo trees never die from aging. Their life can be ended by lightning, fire, wind, disease or stress.
And although it may seem incredible, man’s hand is leading to his demise.
The Ginkgo biloba, also called the tree of the forty shields or the Japanese walnut, a unique tree in the world and no living relativeswhich survived the dinosaurs and the atomic bomb, could cease to exist thanks to the main predator on earth: the man.
GML
