On April 20,1991, the first international meeting on EGb 761 at Montreux, Switzerland, evaluated the cerebral protective effects of this drug. To increase the knowledge of EGb 761 and to review and discuss its place in protection against free-radical-induced disorders, an international conference of chemists, biochemists, biophysicists and clinicians was held in Budapest (June 12, 1992). The present publication constitutes the proceedings of this meeting with a series of articles demonstrating the protective action of EGb 761 against free-radical pathogenicity.