Herb to Know: Licorice

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Things are seldom what they seem.” Is it a sign of the times that in the United States today, much commercial licorice candy contains no licorice at all but instead gets its flavor from anise oil? Licorice root itself has a musky flavor and is fifty times as sweet as table sugar. Most licorice root imported into the United States goes into flavoring tobacco.

The genus Glycyrrhiza (from Greek words meaning “sweet root”) comprises about twenty species of sticky, sometimes hairy perennial herbs with creeping rhizomes, compound leaves, pealike flowers, and leathery or prickly inflated pods. It is native to Eurasia, Australia, and North and South America.

G. glabra is native to dry scrubland or damp ditches in the Mediterranean region and southwestern Asia. It was introduced into England by Dominican friars about 500 years ago and is cultivated in Russia, Greece, Spain, the Middle East, Italy, India, California, and Arizona. It is hardy in Zones 7 to 9.

Plants stand 3 to 5 feet tall and have pinnately compound leaves of nine to seventeen 1- to 2-inch elliptical leaflets. The stem and leaf stalks are fuzzy. Short, stalked spikes of blue or violet flowers in the leaf axils bloom in late summer. The individual flowers are about 1/2 inch long and are followed by smooth, oblong pods 1/2 to 1 inch long containing two to four seeds. (Glabra, Latin for “smooth”, refers to the pod.)

Medicinal uses

Licorice has been used in medicine since antiquity. The Greek historian Theophrastus (372–286 b.c.) made the dubious claim that eating licorice root and mare’s milk cheese enabled the Scythians (an ancient nomadic people who lived near the Black Sea) to go eleven to twelve days without drinking. He also reported on the use of the root to treat respiratory disorders. The Chinese have used the roots of G. glabra and G. uralensis to treat a wide range of illnesses; they include licorice in many of their formulations, believing that it reduces the toxicity of certain other ingredients (they call it the Great Detoxifier). Native Americans and early white settlers used the native G. lepidota to bring on menstrual periods, expel the placenta following childbirth, and relieve earache, toothache, and fever. Licorice has also been used to treat sore throat, urinary tract infections, stomach ulcers, constipation, and Addison’s disease, a disorder marked by ­insuff­icient secretion of hormones of the adrenal cortex. Externally, it has been used to soothe irritated skin and eyes.