Brain Complex Capsules

Recommended intake: Take 3 capsules daily, unchewed, with sufficient liquid during a meal.

Important notes: Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and healthy lifestyle. The stated recommended daily intake must not be exceeded. Keep out of the reach of small children.

Allergens: According to the raw material specification, it contains no allergens requiring declaration pursuant to Annex II of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011.

Storage: Store in a cool, dry place, do not freeze, and protect from direct sunlight.

Ginkgo has no living relatives

Ginkgo biloba is the last surviving species of its own plant division. It is neither a conifer nor a broadleaf tree in the usual sense, but stands botanically on its own; its closest relatives have been extinct for millions of years.

The fan-shaped leaf shows this too: the veins repeatedly fork and do not form a network, as they do in broadleaf trees. Ginkgos are dioecious, so male and female trees are separate; in cities, almost only male trees are planted, because the seeds of female trees smell unpleasant when they rot.

What 45:1, 24 and 6 percent mean

For decades, Ginkgo has had a fixed specification by which extracts are measured: 24 percent flavone glycosides and 6 percent terpene lactones, namely ginkgolides and bilobalide. An extract without these two figures simply cannot be compared with a standardized one.

The ratio 45:1 also describes the concentration: 1 kilogram of extract is obtained from 45 kilograms of dried leaf. So the 60 mg in the daily dose corresponds to around 2.7 grams of leaf material.

Two unusual organisms

Bacopa monnieri, sold as Brahmi, is a creeping marsh plant with thick, water-storing leaves. Botanically, it belongs to the plantain family and is therefore related to psyllium plantain; in the aquarium trade, it is known as small water hyssop.

Tremella fuciformis, the silver ear, is a gelatinous fungus with a special feature: it does not break down wood, but lives off other fungi that sit in the wood. It can therefore only be cultivated together with its host fungus. In East Asia, it is used as an edible mushroom and as an ingredient for desserts.

Phospholipids and bark extracts

Phosphatidylserine was originally obtained from bovine brain. After the BSE crisis, the industry completely switched to plant-based raw materials; today it comes from soy or sunflower lecithin. Citicoline, chemically cytidine diphosphate choline, is produced by fermentation.

The two bark extracts are by-products of forestry. Pine bark comes from the maritime pine grown in the reforestation areas of southwest France, while larch bark is a by-product of wood processing. In both cases, a raw material is used that would otherwise end up as waste wood.