Polyphenol Oxidase(PPO) was purified from an extract of Ginkgo biloba leaves by ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by sephadex G-150 column chromatography, which resulted in a 18-fold increase in specific activity. The enzyme was most active at pH 8.5 and the temperature optimum for the PPO catechol oxidation reaction was $45^{circ}C$. Heat inactivation studies showed that heating for 7, 9 and 48 min, at 80, 70 and $60^{circ}C$ respectively caused a 50% loss in enzymatic activity and that the enzyme was completely inactivated after heat treatment at $90^{circ}C$ for 60 min. Km values of the PPO for catechol, hydroquinone and 4-methylcatechol derived from Lineweaver-Burk plots were $6.06;{ imes};10^{-4}M,;1.02;{ imes};10^{-3}M,;1.41;{ imes};10^{-3}M$ respectively. Of the substrates tested, 4-methylcatechol was oxidized most readily and the enzyme did not oxidize monophenols. The enzyme datalyzed browning reaction was completely inhibited in the presence of reducing reagents, namely ascorbic acid, cysteine, glutathione, 2-mercaptoethanol, potassium metabisulfite at 0.5 mM level. Sodium chloride showed very little inhibition effect on Ginkgo biloba leaves PPO. Lineweaver-Burk analysis of inhibition data revealed that the inhibition by cysteine, 2-mercaptoethanol, potassium cyanide was competitive with ki values of $1.1;{ imes};10^{-5}M,;2.4;{ imes};10^{-5}M,;8;{ imes};10^{-5}M$, respectively. Among the divalent cations, $Cu^{2+}ion$ was a strong activator on PPO and $Mn^{2+}ion$ was little or no effect on PPO activity $Ni^{2+}ion$ was an inhibitor on PPO.