Licorice, also known as honey grass, is known as the "old country" and is a traditional Chinese medicine. The importance of licorice in traditional Chinese medicine can be seen from the "ten medicines and nine grasses". And it is favored by people from both east and west. Medicinal materials are derived from the dried roots and rhizomes of perennial herbs of Leguminosae, Glycyrrhiza glabra or Glycyrrhiza inflata. Licorice, as its name suggests, tastes sweet and is a natural sweetener. Glycyrrhrizae Radix contains glycyrrhizin, which is an effective component of licorice sweetness, and it can be a pure natural sweetener. Glycyrrhizin is about 80 ~ 300 times sweeter than sucrose, as sweet as honey.

The application of licorice in growing areas in China has a long history. Because the emperors of past dynasties built the capital of the Central Plains, the commonly used licorice resources have been consumed for a long time. The three provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and Northeast China, which originally produced licorice, are extinct or rarely distributed. At present, the only provinces that can provide wild commercial medicinal materials are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Yulin in Shaanxi. In the spring and autumn, it is used as medicine after excavation.

Morphological roots and rhizomes are thick, with a diameter of1~ 3 cm. Sweet. The stem is erect and multi-branched, with a height of 30 ~120 cm. The leaves are 5 ~ 20 cm long and the stipules are triangular-lanceolate. It blooms in July, and it is purple and beautiful. After flowering, it bears pods and seeds like beans. The raceme is axillary and has many flowers. The total pedicel is shorter than the leaves, and it is densely brown with scaly glandular spots and pubescence. Bracts oblong-lanceolate, 3 ~ 4 mm long; Calyx bell-shaped, 7 ~14 mm long, densely covered with yellow glandular dots and pubescence; Corolla purple, white or yellow; Ovary densely spiny hairy gland. The pod bends in a sickle or ring shape. Seeds 3 ~11,dark green, round or kidney-shaped, about 3 mm long.

Sex and taste are flat and sweet.

Meridian tropism: heart meridian, stomach meridian, spleen meridian and lung meridian.

Efficacy: invigorating spleen and qi, clearing away heat and toxic materials, relieving cough and eliminating phlegm, relieving pain, and harmonizing various drugs. However, raw licorice and roasted licorice have different effects.

Raw Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch: it is flat in nature and sweet in taste, and has the functions of nourishing spleen and benefiting qi, clearing away heat and toxic materials, eliminating phlegm and relieving cough, relieving pain in a hurry and harmonizing various medicines. It can be used for treating spleen and stomach weakness, listlessness, palpitation, shortness of breath, cough with excessive phlegm, abdominal cavity or limb spasm with acute pain, carbuncle, swelling and sore, and relieving drug toxicity.

Roasted licorice: tonify spleen and stomach, replenish qi and restore pulse. Used for spleen and stomach weakness, fatigue, palpitation and pulse generation.

Its general law can be summarized as follows: the living tend to clear away heat, while the roasted tend to tonify the middle energizer. Raw licorice should be used when heat syndrome and excess syndrome need to clear heat, and roasted licorice should be used when deficiency-cold syndrome needs tonic.

Clinical application Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch has two kinds of processed varieties: raw and roasted. Remove impurities from the dried rhizome of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch., wash it, moisten it thoroughly and cut it into pieces, which will be called raw Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. Mix raw licorice pieces with honey, stir-fry until they don't stick to your hands, take them out and spread them in the air, and then give them to people who take medicine, which is called baked licorice or honey-baked licorice. The common dosage of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch is 3-9g, but the dosage is10-30g when it is used as the main medicine. Its dosage depends on: a large amount of more than 30 grams can relieve pain and detoxify, a medium amount of 6 ~10 grams can tonify qi and tonify middle energizer, and a small amount of 3 ~ 6 grams can harmonize medicinal properties.

Chemical components: glycyrrhizic acid, flavonoids, amino acids, alkaloids, polysaccharides, etc.

It is suggested that pregnant women, lactating women, sexual dysfunction, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and menstrual period are not suitable for taking licorice. It is clearly stated in the incompatibility of traditional Chinese medicine "Eighteen Contradictions" that Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch, Euphorbia, Daphne genkwa, Sargassum and Kansui are incompatible and should not be used together.

Compatibility prescription

1. Treating deficiency of heart-qi: Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata, Radix Rehmanniae, Radix Ophiopogonis, Radix Codonopsis, Ramulus Cinnamomi and Colla Corii Asini. From Treatise on Febrile Diseases

2. Treat Shaoyin disease for two or three days, sore throat, which is not bad with licorice soup: one or two platycodon grandiflorum, two or two licorice, two flavors, three liters of water, one liter of boiling, slag removal, and warm minutes before taking. Tangerine stalk soup from Treatise on Febrile Diseases

3. Those who treat lung flaccidity and spit foam without coughing: licorice four liang (roasted), dried ginger two liang (cannon). Fine-cut the medicine, take three liters of water, boil one liter and five times, remove me and take it at different temperatures. Gancao Ginger Decoction from Synopsis of the Golden Chamber

4. Treatment of Wei Rong's qi deficiency, weakness of viscera, abdominal distension, no appetite, diarrhea with bowel sounds, vomiting and vomiting: Ginseng (removing reed), Poria (peeling), Glycyrrhiza uralensis (roasted) and Atractylodis Macrocephala are equally divided. Fine powder is served on the top, with two yuan and one cup of water for each serving, and it is decocted to seven points, which can be taken orally, regardless of time. Add a little salt, and you can also order white soup. Sijunzi Decoction from Jufang

5. Treating lung heat and sore throat, those with phlegm heat: 6 grams of licorice (fried) and 3 grams of platycodon grandiflorum (soaked in rice for one night). Each dose15g, water for one and a half minutes, and half a piece of donkey-hide gelatin for decoction. From "Direct Formula of Pediatric Medicine Syndrome"

6. Treatment of leg and foot contracture or abdominal pain: white peony and baked licorice each12g. Decoct with water to remove residue, and take it twice. Shaoyao Gancao Decoction from Treatise on Febrile Diseases

7. Prescription for treating all kinds of drugs: 6 grams of raw licorice, raw file. Take three cups of water, fry until one and a half cups, remove me and stop cooling. Take half a cup each time, drink it carefully, but it will be more effective if it doesn't work. It's from the General Record of Shengji.

8. Treating chronic diarrhea and enteritis in livestock and poultry: Codonopsis pilosula, dried ginger, roasted licorice and Atractylodes macrocephala. From Shandong Huameng Hua Meng Le Shu

This article is summarized by Shandong Huameng Chinese Medicine Research Co., Ltd., welcome to leave a comment!