Due to it's antioxidant function, Ginko Biloba's efficiency in controlling the activity and spread of vitiligo as well as it's usefulness in inducing repigmentation was put to the test by a team of researchers from India.
A study published in BMC dermatology shows that 80 percent of the patients treated with 40mg Ginko Biloba three times per day for six months experienced a cessation in the disease progression; 40 percent experienced some degree of repigmentation as compared to only 8 percent in the placebo group.
52 patients were enrolled in this test and they were split into two groups, one group were given ginko biloba and one sugar pills of the same color (placebo group)
Activity of the disease was stopped in all patients with facial vitiligo as compared to none in the placebo group. Researchers presume that facial vitiligo is the main form of vitiligo when the underlying cause is oxidative stress - ginko attenuates oxidative stress and its antioxidant effect is valuable in conditions caused by free radicals.
Another study also yields positive results although not as impressive as the above ones. The study involved 12 participants over the course of 12 weeks. Two participants achieved greater than 30% improvement in VASI, with another achieving 27%, and three more 11 to 18% improvement.
The VASI is a validated vitiligo outcome measure that is used to determine the extent of depigmentation. Scores range from 0 (no depigmentation) to 100 (complete depigmentation of the entire body). The VASI takes into account the size and the degree of depigmentation of vitiligo lesions.
SOURCE:
Effectiveness of oral Ginkgo biloba in treating limited, slowly spreading vitiligo D. Parsad,* R. Pandhi* and A. Juneja
Ginkgo biloba for the treatment of vitilgo vulgaris:an open label pilot clinical trial Orest Szczurko, Neil Shear, Anna Taddio, Heather Boon