Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Licorice is the dried root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a legume plant. It grows in southern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The root tastes sweet, and people use it as a spice, a sweetener and a tea.
You will meet it in sweets, herbal teas, cough syrups and lozenges. It also flavours some drinks and some tobacco products. Supplement makers sell it as capsules, liquid extract and chewable tablets.
Here is the honest verdict. Human proof that licorice treats any illness is thin and comes mostly from small, short trials. What is well proven is the harm side.
Taken daily for weeks, licorice can raise blood pressure and drop your potassium. Some people have ended up in hospital after long or heavy use.
Licorice has a long record in cooking and in herbal practice. A long tradition is not proof that it works. It is also not proof that it is safe.
The clearest effect of licorice is on salt and potassium, and that effect is proven in people.
Glycyrrhizin is the sweet compound in the root. Your body turns it into glycyrrhetinic acid.
That acid blocks a kidney enzyme called 11-beta-HSD2. The enzyme normally switches off cortisol, a stress hormone. With it blocked, cortisol acts like aldosterone, the hormone that holds salt in the body.
The result is salt and water retention, potassium loss and higher blood pressure. Doctors call this pseudoaldosteronism (a salt and potassium imbalance). It can begin within a few weeks at quite modest daily amounts.
The claimed benefits are much less certain. In animal and cell studies, licorice flavonoids appear to calm inflammation and protect the stomach lining.
In test tubes, some licorice compounds slow bacteria and viruses. Whether any of that happens in a living person is not established.
Deglycyrrhizinated licorice, sold as DGL, has most of the glycyrrhizin stripped out. That lowers the blood pressure and potassium risk. It also removes the compound most of the lab work focused on, so the benefit case for DGL rests on small human studies.
Common forms you will find:
Dried root pieces, for chewing or simmering as a tea. Cut root and tea bags, often blended with other herbs. Powdered root in capsules.
Liquid extracts and tinctures. Chewable DGL tablets, made with most glycyrrhizin removed. Lozenges, throat sprays and cough syrups.
Creams and gels for the skin, usually standardised to glabridin or glycyrrhetinic acid.
Licorice is also a food. Licorice sweets, some liqueurs and some soft drinks contain real root extract.
Anise and fennel sweets taste similar but contain no licorice. Check the label if the risk matters to you.
Amounts differ hugely across these forms. A strong extract can deliver in one dose what a weak tea gives in a week.
Licorice has one of the longest written records of any plant remedy. Root was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Greek and Roman writers listed it for cough and thirst.
In Ayurveda it was called yashtimadhu and was given for throat and stomach complaints. In Chinese herbal practice it is gancao, one of the most used roots of all.
Chinese formulas often added it to blend and soften other herbs rather than to act alone.
In Europe it became a confectionery flavour and a cough syrup base. Dutch and Nordic licorice sweets grew from that trade.
These uses describe what past practitioners did. They are history, not results from testing.
Stop licorice and call a doctor the same day if you notice:
Swollen ankles, hands or face. Bad headaches. Muscle weakness or cramps that are new. Unusual tiredness or thirst.
Get emergency help if you have a pounding or irregular heartbeat, chest pain, fainting, or weakness so bad you cannot stand.
If you have eaten licorice daily for weeks, tell the doctor. Ask for a blood pressure and potassium check, as these problems are easy to miss.
In the United States, licorice is allowed as a food flavouring and sold as a dietary supplement. In the EU and UK it is an ordinary food ingredient, and foods above a set glycyrrhizin level must carry a licorice warning on the label. It is not approved as a medicine for any disease in these places.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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