Botany names

Description - A tall erect herb or under shrub up to about 1.5 m high. Leaves compound, leaflets 4-7 pairs. Flowers lilac or light violet small, in slender axillary spikes which are equal to, or slight longer than the leaves. Fruits 1-3 cm long, flat, dense covered all over with small spinous outgrowths. The rootstock throws numerous additional roots, or in some forms, there are several branched stems near the rootstock remaining underground.

Chemical Constituents- Good quality liquorice contains 78% glycynrhizin (glycyrrhetic acid alpha diglucuronoside, C-2-beta.) It behaves like a typical saponin.

Use - Liquorice is believed to be useful in cough, sore throat, bronchitis, abdominal pains, consumption and epilepsy. It is sweet, tonic, demulcent and laxative It is used in coughs, sore throat, and genito-urinary disease and also in peptic ulcer. The drug is imported into India from the USSR. Italy and Spain. Its use in peptic ulcers was recognised when it was found a few years ago that liquorice has a spasmolytic effect on ventriculus thus relieving pain and speeding up recovery. In the animal experiments, it lowers intestinal tone and contractility. It is now given great interest because it is reported that it has effects resembling hydrocortisone. When liquorice is given along with anthraquinone containing drugs for laxative action, liquorice potentiates anthraquinone drugs by sensitizing the intestines. It tastes one hundred and fifty times sweeter than cane sugar (The sweetest substance found in nature is Stevoside, found up to 7% in the leaves of Stevia reboundiana. It is non-toxic and three hundred times sweeter than cane sugar.)