Licorice

A perennial legume three to five feet tall with pinnate leaves of 9 to 17 oval leaflets, spikes of pale blue-violet pea flowers, and flat brown pods. The roots and underground runners are long, fibrous, yellow inside, and intensely sweet when chewed.

G. glabra is the European and Middle Eastern species; G. uralensis is the main Chinese species. American licorice (G. lepidota) is a milder native relative that grows wild across the West.

The name comes from Greek glykyrrhiza, “sweet root.” Chinese herbalists called it guó lǎo, the “national elder,” because it softens harsh herbs and brings a formula together. In England licorice was grown at Pontefract in Yorkshire from the Middle Ages, and the town’s little black Pontefract cakes became one of the first licorice sweets.

Culpeper put licorice “under the dominion of Mercury” and boiled it with figs for “a dry cough or hoarseness.” Most modern licorice candy is flavored mainly with anise oil rather than licorice root.

Plant runners or crowns in deep, sandy, well-drained soil in full sun. It needs a long warm season and spreads underground once established. Roots are ready to harvest in the third or fourth year.

Grow the true species; there are few named varieties. It fixes nitrogen and can be planted near hungry crops, but give it its own bed, as the runners spread.

Dig roots and runners in fall of the third or fourth year, wash them, cut them into lengths, and dry them slowly. Leave some runners in the ground to regrow.

Children once chewed sticks of dried root as a sweet. A small piece of root in a cough tea or with ginger and honey soothes a scratchy throat.

Licorice root sweetens herbal tea blends and some braises and spiced liquors. Use it sparingly; a little adds a lot of sweetness and a lingering aftertaste.

Root as tea, decoction, syrup, lozenge, and paste. In Chinese medicine it is used to strengthen digestion, ease cough, relieve spasms and pain, and harmonize formulas. In Europe and the Middle East it was a staple for coughs, hoarseness, and stomach upsets. Ayurveda calls it yashtimadhu and uses it for cough, hoarseness, and wounds.

In the Four Gentlemen decoction (sì jūn zǐ tāng), the base of many classical qi tonics described in Walker and Bauer’s The Ancient Art of Life and Death (2002), licorice sits beside ginseng, atractylodes, and poria and plays the envoy, the herb that brings the others into agreement.

Chinese medicine: sweet, neutral, entering the Heart, Lung, Spleen, and Stomach channels; a qi tonic. Ayurveda: sweet taste, cooling potency, sweet post-digestive effect; pacifies Vata and Pitta. Culpeper: Mercury.

Licorice’s sweetness comes from glycyrrhizin (glycyrrhizic acid), roughly 30 to 50 times sweeter than sugar. The root also contains flavonoids such as liquiritin and isoliquiritigenin, which give it a yellow color, glabridin in G. glabra, and coumarins. “DGL” licorice has most of the glycyrrhizin removed.

NCCIH says there isn’t enough high-quality evidence to support licorice for any condition, though early studies hint at help for canker sores, sore throat after surgery, and some skin problems. European regulators list licorice root as a traditional herbal medicine for cough and cold and for mild digestive complaints.

Glycyrrhizin makes the body hold salt and lose potassium. Large amounts, or small amounts every day, can raise blood pressure and cause dangerous heart rhythms, especially in people with high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, or a salty diet. Heavy licorice use in pregnancy has been linked to preterm birth. Check with a doctor before using licorice regularly, especially if you take medications.

Most U.S. “black licorice” candy contains some real licorice extract; eating a lot of it every day has caused hospital stays.