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Licorice |
Licorice Scientific Name: Glycyrrhiza glabra Part Used: Root In a word: Respiratory cure all Uses: Respiratory disorders: cough, asthma, sinusitis, allergies, bronchitis Our next herb, licorice, is the dream plant for those who have a respiratory tract problem. I have yet to see an over-the-counter medication or prescription drug outperform licorice in getting a respiratory tract in working order. 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 flavored with anise. So why do they call the stuff licorice? In the days before food had a shelf life longer than many people’s life spans, there was once an item called a licorice stick. These dark, sticklike roots were produced by the licorice plant, which is a member of the pea family. Why did pharmacists stock these sticks and why did children beg their moms to buy them? 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 make 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. Licorice can be used in all the chronic respiratory problems. This includes asthma, allergies, hay fever, sinusitis, bronchitis, and laryngitis. 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 writing 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 irritated respiratory tract. 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. In the 1450 Frankfurt Book of Drugs, licorice appears once again. From the 1500s onward, the licorice-producing industry became centralized in southern 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. One of the oldest extant herbals, Macer Floridus de Viribus Herbarum, contains the following notation on licorice: For the brest, for the lunges. Liquorice sodden in watir til it be nesshe and than pressed well and oft dryed is clethid chylum whan it is dried pus. This wole helpe pe lunges and abate the stifnessis and diseases of it. No medecyne helpith swether the instrumentis of the lunges, of the brest, than doth liquorice. These instrumentis helpith liquorice wonderly nat in turmentyng, as doth cost, neither in fretyng, as doth aloe, but in softe likynnge. What this ninth-century herbalist is saying is that no drug was as effective as licorice in healing the lungs. Thank you, Macer! On the Chinese front, we see a similarly long history of licorice’s use 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 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, pharyngitis, 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.
Practitioners’ Advice When you need a good night’s rest, there is nothing like being awakened by the sound of your own coughing every time you are about to drift off to sleep. The American annual retail sales for over-the-counter cough medicines hover around 4 billion dollars; if there ever was a testimony to the need for something herbal in the medicine cabinet for coughs, this would be it. There is actually nothing wrong with coughing per se; it is the body’s way of moving stuff out of the lungs. The problem is that most coughs are unproductive, meaning that you cough, but nothing comes up or out. One of my favorite medical writers from the beginning of the century, Lyman Watkins, M.D., had this to say on the matter: Cough is a spasmodic, expulsive effort of the respiratory organs. It arises from irritation, either direct or remote, of the sensitive nerve endings in the respiratory mucous membrane. Cough is a symptom, not a disease, it is, however, a very frequent and often the only evidence of morbid conditions, therefore remedies for its relief have always occupied a prominent position in therapeutics. The reason so many coughs are unproductive, and by that we can assume not really necessary, as Horton suggests, 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, nonprescription and otherwise, work to soothe the stimulated nerves and irritated tissues of the respiratory tract. This is where licorice excels. It has been found to be as effective as codeine at quieting these nerves at the root of all this unproductive coughing. So, when a cough becomes irritating and non-productive, call in the licorice. It will speed the recovery from coughs and colds and the flu to boot. Beyond this use in acute respiratory drama, licorice can be used in all the chronic respiratory problems. This includes asthma, allergies, hay fever, sinusitis, bronchitis, and laryngitis. Licorice is anti-inflammatory in nature and will reduce the inflammation so prominent in these chronic respiratory afflictions. In these cases it should be used daily for some months for an improvement in respiratory health! QUICK REVIEW History: European ‘cure all’ for respiratory problems Science: Contains compounds that improve respiratory function Practitioners opinion: Effective in all respiratory complaints Directions: Tincture (1:5, 25% alcohol): 5ml 3 times daily |
