Licorice
(Glycyrrhiza glabra)
DESCRIPTION The leguminous plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, contains a substance, glycyrrhizin, which is 50 times sweeter than sugar. Sugar, as we know it today, is a relatively new development; 400 years ago, the only sweet tastes came from fruit and honey. The extreme sweetness of licorice made it a real oddity, and people loved it. Due to its peculiar sweetness, licorice was used in many medicines to mask the unpleasant taste of the other ingredients. This is still a common practice in China today.
There are two kinds of licorice used in medicine, G. glabra, which is the European variety, and G. uralensis, which is the Chinese variety. Licorice has been used in domestic medicine for centuries. It seems that the Greeks first got their hands on the sweet roots from the Scythians. Theophrastus, a Greek writer in the third century B.C., noted the Scythian root’s value in treating asthma, dry coughs, and anything else troubling the respiratory system. King Tut’s tomb was said to be loaded with licorice (perhaps he was an asthmatic and didn’t want to spend eternity coughing and wheezing!).
Dioscorides, another ancient writer on herbal medicine, called the plant glycyrrhiza. This means "sweet root," which indeed licorice is. The Romans called the plant liquiritia, which became the English word, ‘licorice.’ The Roman writers Celsus, Scribonius, and Largus all mention the plant; like the Greeks, they found the root to be amazingly effective in quieting an irritating cough.
It seems likely that the Romans carried licorice with them on their moves northward to countries where coughs and colds due to harsh weather were so common. Licorice was used in Germany during the Middle Ages. The English King Henry IV kept a good supply in his pharmacy, as records dating to 1424 indicate. An Italian medical writer named Saladinus states that licorice could be found in all the pharmacies in 15th-century Italy. Though other European countries grew the plant, the Italian root was said to be the best for both medicine and candy. As a cough treatment, licorice has been in active use for at least 2,300 years, and that's because it works.
On the Chinese front, we see a similarly long history of licorice's used for much the same purpose – healing the chest and quieting the dreaded cough. The root is mentioned in the Divine Husbandman’s Classic of the Materia Medica, written in 206 B.C. during the Han Dynasty. Licorice is one of the most popular medicinal herbs in China; in fact, few traditional Chinese formulas give it a miss. The Chinese consider it to be antitussive, demulcent, emollient, expectorant, and a mild laxative. In the chest department, it is used to treat coughs, consumption, laryngitis, sore throat, bronchitis, and chronic bronchitis.
The Chinese have found at least ten anti-inflammatory flavonoids in licorice, along with an acid, glycyrrhetic acid, that has been proven to be both antibacterial and antitussive. This triple combination makes licorice perfect for the job at hand. In fact, licorice’s anti-inflammatory abilities are so strong that they are used to heal all manner of irritated tissues be they inside or outside the body. The action is very much like that of a steroid such as cortisone. The good news with this steroid-like action is that it doesn’t come packing the immune-suppressing side effects of chemically synthesized steroids. People who are attempting to get off the steroid merry-go-round often use licorice to help wean their bodies off the drugs.
Using licorice when you have a cough couldn’t be easier. What’s more, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rated this one "generally recognized as safe," so you can drink as much soothing licorice tea as you like.
THERAPEUTIC USES The reason so many coughs are unproductive, and by that we can assume not really necessary is that the nerve endings placed in the lungs to detect when coughing is necessary become irritated in the process. The initial, productive coughing inflames the lung tissue. This inflammation compresses the nerve endings that send messages to the brain indicating that more coughs are in order. The coughing that first served to get mucus out of the lungs eventually serves only to further irritate the lung tissue in a vicious cycle.
Cough syrups and drops, nonprescriptive and otherwise, work to soothe the stimulated nerves and irritated tissues of the respiratory tract. Our next herb, licorice, is the dream plant for those who are hacking away. I have yet to see an over-the-counter medication outperform licorice in suppressing a cough!
We are not talking about the red or black strips of sugary candy sold as licorice sticks at most confectioners. Those are medicinally worthless; they contain no natural licorice whatsoever. In fact, they tend to be flavoured with anise. So why do they call the stuff "licorice"? In the days before food had shelf life longer than many people’s life spans, there was once an item call a licorice stick. These dark, stick-like roots were produced by the licorice plant, which is a member of the pea family.
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