Ginkgo biloba L. seed; A comprehensive review of bioactives, toxicants, and processing effects

The Ginkgo biloba L. seeds (GBS) have been used for thousands of years. The GBS is used to produce functional beverages, fruit candies, and canned foods, among other items. Ginkgo biloba food supplements revenue in the world market accounts for over US$ 1.26 billion annually. Few reports have painstakingly summarized GBS. Thus, this review presents a systematic and current knowledge of GBS bioactives and toxicants and processing techniques applied during the last decade as success stories for education, research, and industrial scale. The methods used for extracting, separating, and identifying the main active constituents are explained. The factors impacting toxic and bioactive content and structure, including processing techniques, are outlined. Thermal technologies (steaming, roasting, microwaving, drying, and boiling), fermentation, membrane separation, non-thermal technologies (ultrasound, osmo-sonication, high hydrostatic pressure, and osmo-vacuum) treatment of GBS can reduce toxicity, and more active ingredients can also be retained. The severity of toxicity relies upon the processing method; therefore, it is essential to understand the GBS correctly as ginkgotoxins (MPN), ginkgotoxin-5-glucoside (MPNG) and ginkgolic acid may initiate poisoning. As current works have shown that processing methods can reduce the toxicants (ginkgotoxins and ginkgolic acids) to a level unlikely to cause toxicity, GBS's detoxification efficiency needs further research. This will establish a complete understanding of GBS for food technologists, process engineers, chemists, physicians, academia or industry, and provide a scientific basis for its production.