Liquorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra, is a purple and white flowering perennial, native of the Mediterranean region and central and southwest Asia. It is cultivated

The aerial parts of the plant are erect and branched, with round stems that become somewhat angular near the top. The leaves are alternate, odd, and pinnate, dividing into as many as eight pairs of oblong leaflets.

Liquorice blossoms in late summer. The sweet-pea like flowers grow in clusters and are small, bluish-purple in color and have long peduncles. They are papilionaceous, arranged in axillary and erect spikes. Fruit is a smooth, compressed, one-celled legume, bearing up to four kidney-shaped seeds.

The root is perennial, round, long and straight, tough and fibrous. It is grayish outside and yellowish within. It is sweet to taste. And its most desirable virtues lie inside of the cortical. In India, it is cultivated widely in Punjab and the sub-Himalayan tracts. Dried liquorice roots are available in all Indian bazaars.

Hippocrates named the herb glukos riza, or sweet root. Several species of this member of the Leguminosae, or pea family, are used medicinally. The British adopted the spelling liquorice from the Latin liquiritia and the German name has a similar meaning (süß ‘sweet’ and Holz ‘wood’). The same holds for the Sanskrit name yashti , meaning ‘stem, stalk; and madhu, meaning ‘sweet’. The Latin species name glaber meaning ‘hairless’ refers to the leaves, to distinguish from some related species having hairy leaves.

At all times, liquorice was used less as a spice than as a medicine. Its use against the diseases of the upper respiratory tract dates back to ancient Egypt. The main part of the plant used in medicine is the root. This root is a demulcent and gentle relaxant, soothing to mucous irritations, and valued chiefly for its sweet taste and in masking the sharpness / pungency / taste of other remedies.

Ayurveda recommends the root as beneficial in the treatment of coughs, colds, and other bronchial irritations. The root may be chewed as throat lozenges; or prepared as infusions by removing the outer bark and boiling for several minutes, to relieve hoarseness and coughs. During Charaka’s period, it was popular among singers as a lozenge.

Liquorice is used mainly as a spice in many countries. Frequently used spices termed “sweet” like anise, fennel and star anise cannot match the sweetness of liquorice. There are many components in liquorice, but the most active is glycyrrhizin. The root, especially the root bark, contains about 4% glycyrrhizin, potassium or calcium salt of glycyrrhizinic acid. Glycyrrhizin is about 50 times sweeter than cane sugar. Its action is similar to hormones produced in the adrenal cortex, especially desoxycorticosterone (DOCA). Glycyrrhizin is changed in the liver to glycyrrhe