ABSTRACT
I moved to Tohoku University, Sendai, from Tokyo Kyoiku University (currently Tsukuba University) in spring 1963 to succeed Professor S.Fujise and started working on the isolation of the ginkgolides which he had started in 1960. This became an exciting and rewarding study which came to a conclusion in September 1966 after the finding of many extraordinary reactions as well as the encounter with the NMR intramolecular nuclear Overhauser effect (noe), unknown when we first observed it. Although no special biological activity was found for these molecules at that time, it is quite extraordinary that later they were found to be potent and selective antagonists of platelet activating factor. Even more striking is that Ginkgo biloba is already mentioned in the Chinese Materia Medica 5,000 years ago (Deng, 1988). The exponentially growing annual sales of the crude extract as a phytopharmaceutical and dietary supplement, which is reputed to improve memory and sharpen mental focus, was ca. 0.9 billion dollars in 1997 (Germany 280 M$, other Europe 200 M$, US 205 M$, Asia 200 M$) and projected to exceed 1 billion dollars in 1998 (Pharmanex, 1997; see also Grunwald, 1994).
