Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
What it is:
Licorice was used therapeutically in ancient China and Rome, mostly for respiratory complaints and intestinal woes. Ever since, the plant’s roots have been used for these conditions and more, with an ever-growing mountain of scientific evidence to back up the applications. Some twenty different licorice species grow in parts of Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Australia. The plant typically sports small, pointy leaves and flower clusters. Licorice derives its common name from liquirtia, a Latin term based on the plant’s original Greek name, glukos riza, or “sweet root”. The active ingredient, glycyrrhizin, is 50 times sweeter than sugar, but it has an aftertaste that puts a lot of people off. Perhaps that’s one reason why, at least in the U.S., those “ropes” of licorice candy usually contain more anise than licorice.
Therapeutic Uses:
1) Bronchitis, coughing, mucous membrane inflammation, respiratory disease, stomach inflammation, ulcers.
2) Addison’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cataracts, caries, central nervous system disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, colds, congestion, diabetes, encephalitis, flu, gallbladder problems, hepatitis, herpes, HIV, indigestion, kidney disease, lichen planus, lupus, malaria, overeating, polycystic ovary syndrome, prostate enlargement (benign), retinopathy, sore throat, thrush, tuberculosis, urinary tract infection, vaginitis, yeast infections.
3)Folk uses:
Appendicitis, boils, canker sores, colic, constipation, consumption, cramps, depression, diphtheria, dizziness, earache, eczema, epilepsy, eye inflammation, fibromyalgia, heartburn, heart disease, hemorrhoids, kidney stones, lack of appetite, menstrual pain, oral inflammation, snakebite, tetanus, viral hepatitis.
Medicinal Properties for Licorice:
Licorice’s phytochemical components are among the best studied (and most complicated) in all of herbal medicine. Two major ingredients are glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid, but even without them, the herb, in the form of deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), retains the healing powers of licoricone and related flavonoids, triterpenoids, lignans, and other phytochemicals. Let’s look at each.
Medicinal Properties for Whole Licorice Root Extract:
Inflammation:
Glycyrrhizin blocks prostaglandin production production and inflammation. Although it supports the body’s release of cortisol, it also inhibits some of the more detrimental side effects of that natural hormone’s presence, such as increasing cholesterol synthesis in the liver and blocking the work of the adrenal glands and thymus. Topically it’s a very good treatment for tendonitis, bursitis, gum inflammation and such autoimmune inflammatory reactions as psoriasis.
Viral and Bacterial Infections:
Some 30 percent of licorice’s dry weight consists of antibacterial substances, and its saponins improve the body’s ability to use other antibacterial compounds. Licorice also soothes irritated mucous membranes and contains nine different natural expectorants to break up phlegm and ease coughing. This alone makes it effective against colds and the flu. But there’s more: Good scientific evidence illustrates that licorice fights viruses, including Epstein-Barr, herpes, hepatitis and HIV. Glycyrrhizin prods the immune system into secreting more interferon, a basic antiviral chemical that prevents infectious foes from taking hold inside the body. It inhibits the villainous viral invasion in which the bug penetrates a cell and changes its genetic makeup to replicate and spread.
In the liver, licorice extract protects the organ from viral hepatitis. In the mouth, it heals canker sores, with significant improvement in just a day for 75 percent of one study’s participants and complete healing two days later. And it fights HIV, as illustrated by an experiment involving people with haemophilia who apparently contracted HIV from blood transfusions; a month’s worth of glycyrrhizin supplements markedly reduced concentrations of the virus in their blood. During the course of the seven year experiment, none of the eight licorice users got AIDS; two people in the comparison group did.
Sex hormones:
Licorice offers something for both men and women. For men, it helps inhibits the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, a form of the male hormone implicated in hair loss and prostate enlargement. For women, it appears to either raise or reduce estrogen levels, depending on the body’s need.
Sugar Metabolism:
Licorice’s isoliquiritigenin, glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid help prevent the buildup (especially in the eye’s lens, the spine’s sciatic nerve and the bloodstream) of a form of sugar called sorbitol, which figures in many of the complications of diabetes, including cataracts and vision deterioration, nerve damage and kidney malfunction. In this regard, isoliquiritigenin works like pharmaceuticals known as aldose reductase inhibitors, which are prescribed for these conditions.
Medicinal Properties for Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice:
Licorice occasionally thrusts a two edged sword into your herbal medicine cabinet. The large doses sometimes necessary to generate a therapeutic effect can cause side effects, including high blood pressure, water retention, tissue swelling, weight gain headache, lethargy, and skewed potassium and sodium levels. The side effects result from increasing levels of Cortisol and other adrenal hormones. There is one instance in which the side effects are a welcome blessing: Addison's disease, in which the adrenal glands don't secrete enough Cortisol and aldosterone, leaving you weak and emaciated, among other consequences.
Because of the adverse reactions, those who like to tinker with nature decided to strip licorice of its glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid and see what healing power remained from the licoricone and related navonoids, triterpenoids, lignans, and other phytochemicals. The effort has proved successful in treating ulcers and related stomach problems. The first drug demonstrated to encourage the healing of peptic ulcers was derived from whole licorice. DGL works just as well, advocates of the altered preparation claim. They say that besides quelling spasms and reducing stomach acid (take heed, heartburn sufferers), DGL protects and promotes the cells that line the intestinal tract, boosting blood flow to them and lengthening their lives. It also spares the stomach from aspirin's erosive effect. Despite the positive reports, some phytomedicinal experts and other herbal purists are uncomfortable with DGL and remain skeptical of its worth, believing that this version doesn't completely lose its potential for side effects but does lose many of its medicinal attributes.
Prescription Counterparts:
According to comparative studies DGL works just as well for ulcers as the popular prescription antacids cimetidine (Tagamet) and ranitidine hydrochloride (Zantac). Yet the herb carries none of the risks of the synthetic drugs. By reducing gastric secretions, those drugs disturb normal digestion. In so doing, they also change the makeup and function of the cells lining the gastrointestinal tract. That partly explains why fans of the pharmaceuticals, which don’t have this effect, suffer ulcer relapses or undergo operations more frequently than do users of DGL.
For curbing a cough, oral doses of glycyrrhetinic acid are just as good as codeine, according to research. As for psoriasis and other inflammatory problems (such as bursitis and tendonitis) licorice extracts are just as effective as hydrocortisone creams. Herbal preparations won’t cause weight gain, indigestion, or insomnia, as hydrocortisone can. Nor will they render you more vulnerable to infections, another endearing trait of hydtocortisone. What’s more, if you wish to use the pharmaceutical, you will get better results if you take it along with some licorice.
Dosage Options:
One to three capsules standardized to provide 200 milligrams of certified-potency licorice root extract and 50 milligrams of glycyrrhizinic acid daily. Other daily options include 200 to 600 milligrams of glycyrrhizin, half to one teaspoon of a liquid extract, 2 to 4 tablespoons of fresh roots, or half to one teaspoon of licorice tincture three times a day. For ulcers, 380 milligrams of DGL three times a day.
Safety rating: 2
Precautions:
Licorice has gotten a bad rap from many medical authorities, mostly Americans. This herb possesses significant medical potential and should be regarde with the same cautious optimism as any other medicinal agent: good if used wisely, bad if used inappropriately. With moderate use in reasonable amounts, most people need not fear licorice. Stick with supplements of the whole herb, not isolated extracts of this or that glycyrrhizin component. For an ulcer, use DGL; you’ll avoid side effects even if you take big dosages.
For therapeutic applications that require glycyrrhizin, some herbal experts say that you shouldn’t take it longer than a month or so without seeing a doctor. Taking more than 50 grams of licorice root a day can elevate blood pressure, lower potassium levels, and cause water retention among other problems. Given these potential problems, you probably shouldn’t take this herb if you have hypertension, kidney problems, liver problems, diabetes or heart disease.
