Soy, garlic, and ginkgo biloba: their potential role in cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment.

There are hundreds of foods, nutrients, herbs, and botanicals that have "bioactive" constituents with potential human health benefits. Three of these are discussed in this review: soy, garlic, and ginkgo biloba. Each of these three choices involves an ingestible item composed of a complex mixture of bioactive agents. For each of these three, there is a large and growing body of research suggesting potential cardiovascular health benefits. And for each there is at least some level of disagreement or controversy. The focus of this review is on results from recent human clinical trials.