Licorice

Glycyrrhiza glabra

Also: Liquorice, Sweet root, DGL

WarmingMoisteningRelaxing

Moistens dry tissue and sweetens every formula it joins.

A tall, ferny legume with pale violet flower spikes and a yellow, fibrous root about fifty times sweeter than sugar. Licorice coats and moistens dry, irritated tissue from throat to gut, soothes a dry cough, and steadies a body run down by long stress.

Energetics: Warming, moistening, relaxing
Taste: Intensely sweet
Family: Fabaceae (pea family)
Parts used: Root

Medicinal uses 6

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Sore throatTLC
Coats and soothes a raw throat; a licorice gargle reduces sore throat after surgery in clinical trials.
Dry coughTLC
Wets dry, tickly airways and quiets a hacking cough that brings nothing up.
Heartburn & refluxTLC
Deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) chewed before meals coats and soothes an irritated stomach.
Gut irritation & ulcersTLC
Soothes and helps mend a raw, ulcerated stomach and bowel.
Exhaustion & burnoutTLC
Supports a body worn down by long stress, especially one that runs dry.
Rashes & eczemaTLC
A licorice wash or cream takes the itch out of eczema, insect bites, and rashes.

Preparations

Simmered root, a small part of many formulas, and DGL tablets for the stomach.

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Cautions

Whole licorice raises blood pressure and lowers potassium with daily use over weeks. Leave it out with high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, and alongside diuretics, digoxin, or corticosteroids.
DGL has the glycyrrhizin removed and avoids that effect.
Much licorice candy is flavored with anise rather than licorice root; real licorice confectionery counts toward your intake.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Glycyrrhizin blocks the placental enzyme that shields a baby from the mother's stress hormones, and a large Finnish study linked heavy licorice intake in pregnancy to earlier births and to attention and learning differences in the children years later. Licorice tea and real licorice candy both count, so it waits until after birth.

BreastfeedingAvoid medicinal doses

Medicinal doses wait until after weaning. An occasional piece of real licorice candy is a small amount.

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Folklore

Glycyrrhiza comes from Greek words for sweet root. Theophrastus wrote that the Scythians could go eleven or twelve days without drinking, living on the root and mare's-milk cheese. Licorice root is said to have been laid in Tutankhamun's tomb. Pontefract in Yorkshire grew licorice in its deep soils for centuries, and Pontefract cakes, the town's small black licorice rounds, are still stamped with a castle.

How to grow

A perennial for long, hot summers and deep, loose, sandy soil in full sun. It spreads by runners. Dig roots in autumn after the third or fourth year, then wash, split, and dry them.

In the wild

River valleys and open scrub from the Mediterranean through the Middle East to Central Asia.

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