Cognitive impairment is characterized as an acquired and progressive manifestation of intellectual impairment. Cognitive impairment includes learning， memory， visual space and other abnormal abilities， leading to progressive memory decline， daily living ability decline， mental and behavioral anti-oxidative stress， anti-inflammatory response， anti-apoptosis， etc.， to explore its mechanism of treatment of cognitive impairment abnormalities and other clinical manifestations. The pathological mechanism of cognitive impairment is complex， including Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. Currently， the treatment of multiple targets is the key to improve the efficacy of pharmacotherapy， and it is also possesses the most significant position in recent years. Ginkgobiloba has multi-target and multi-channel treatment characteristics. In this review， we will use the main components of ginkgo biloba lactone， namely ginkgolides A， B， C and bilobalide as the entry point， from its