Root and the juice extracted therefrom.

Fabaceae (bean family)

The aroma is strongly reminiscent of anise or fennel, but considerably stronger. The taste is dominantly sweet, warm and medical.

The root, especially the root bark, contains about 4% glycyrrhizin, the potassium or calcium salt of glycyrrhizinic acid. The latter is a glycoside of a pentacyclic triterpene carboxylic acid (18β-glycyrrhetic acid) with two molecules glucuronic acid. Glycyrrhizin is about 50 times sweeter than sucrose (cane sugar). Furthermore, a flavonoid glycoside has been identified: liquiritin. The aglycon liquiritigenin is in part spontaneously formed when the root is dried; it is responsible for the spasmolytic effects of licorice. Licorice contains only traces of essential oil; volatile constituents identified include bicyclic monterpenoid ketones (fenchone, thujone) and coumarins (herniarin, umbelliferone).

China. Licorice is a medical plant in China and India, and therefore cultivated.

Licorice essentially derives from Greek glykeia rhiza [γλυκεῖα ῥίζα] “sweet root”; compare also the modern Greek name glikoriza [γλυκόριζα]. For the first element glykys [γλυκύς] “sweet” see almond; the second element rhiza [ῥίζα] is cognate to English “root”, being derived from the Indo-European linguistic root WRD

In Latin tongue, the Greek plant name was loaned as liquiritia, being influenced by liquere “flow” for the liquid form of licorice juice. The British spelling liquorice has somewhat conserved that relation. Latin liquiritia is the source of many names for licorice in modern European languages, e.g., German Lakritze, Czech lékořice and Ukrainian lokrytsya [локриця]. In most of the Romance languages, the word was changed by metathesis between the sounds L and R (Provençal recalicé, French réglisse, Spanish ragaliz). Basque erregaliz is a loan from these Romance forms. The German name Süßholz “sweet wood” and its Dutch analogue zoethout are probably simply calqued from liquorice. German süß “sweet” has many Germanic cognates (English sweet, Dutch zoet, Danish sød, Old Norse sætr) going back to a Common Germanic root SWOTJA. There are also relatives outside the Germanic branch: Old Greek hedys [ἡδύς] (see also mint), Sanskrit svadu [स्वादु], Latin suavis, all meaning “sweet”, and the Greek noun hedone [ἡδονή] “delight, pleasure”; the Indo-European root may be reconstructed as SWADU “sweet; pleasure” and might itself be composed of two elements SWA-DU “give (fruit) juice”.

German Holz “wood” also has many relatives: Archaic and poetic English holt and Welsh celli “wood”, Russian koloda [колода] “woodblock” and Greek klados [κλάδος] “branch”. The original meaning seems to have been “break, cut off”, cf. Greek klan [κλᾶν] “break”, Lithuanian kalti “beat, forge” and Latin clades “hurt, damage”.

The characteristic sweet taste of liquorice is also reflected in the Indian names. In Sanskrit, madhu means “sweet, pleasant”. This element is found in names for licorice not only in Sanskrit (madhuka [मधूक] and yashtimadhu [यष्टिमधु] from yashti [यष्टि] “stem, stalk”), but also in modern names of both South and North India, e.g., Marathi jestamadha [ज्यष्ठमध], Bengali yashthimodhu [যষ্ঠিমধু], Telugu atimadhuramu [అతిమధురము] and Kannada yashthimadhu [ಯಷ್ಠಿಮಧು]. Outside of India, related names are Lithuanian saldymedis and Armenian madudag [մատուտակ]. The Indo-European root behind this element is MEDHU “honey, sweet”; see bear's garlic for its linguistic affiliation.

Further examples of sweetness motivating a name for licorice are Estonian magusjuur, Hungarian édesgyökér, Ukrainian solodkyj korin [солодкий корінь] and Bulgarian sladuk koren [сладък корен], all of which translate to “sweet root”. See also almond for the Slavonic terms for “sweet”. Lastly, one should mention the Chinese name for the related species Gl. uralensis, which is gan cao [甘草] meaning “sweet straw” or “sweet herb”. The name has been loaned to Vietnamese as cam thao [cam thảo], to Korean as kamcho [감초] and to Japanese as kanzō [甘草, かんぞう]. The Japanese Kanji symbols literally mean “sweet grass” or “sweet plant”.

The Latin species name glaber “bald, hairless” refers to the seed pods which have a smooth surface; in other species of the genus, the fruits are pubescent