ABSTRACT
Liquorice (or “licorice”) is a herb with a long and illustrious past. Liquorice extracts and their key ingredient, glycyrrhizin, are commonly used in several foods, cigarettes, tobacco, and medicines. As a consequence, liquorice and glycyrrhizin are widely used with an average per day consumption of 0.027–3.6 mg glycyrrhizin/kg. The majority of national and supranational regulatory agencies have approved the usage of both substances for food. According to biochemical findings, glycyrrhizinate suppresses 11-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, the enzyme responsible for cortisol inactivation. As a consequence, both rodents and humans will grow hypermineralocorticoid-like effects from constant, high-level intake of glycyrrhizin compounds. These effects may be reversed by removing the liquorice or glycyrrhizin. Other in vivo and in vitro trials have shown that both the liquorice extract and glycyrrhizin intake has extensive medicinal properties including antiulcer, antiviral, neuro, and hepatoprotective effects. Several genotoxic experiments have proven that glycyrrhizin does not act as teratogen and neither it acts as mutagen, except that it could have anti-genotoxic properties under some circumstances. The pharmacokinetics of glycyrrhizin has been identified, and it has been shown that its bioavailability is decreased when ingested as liquorice; this has hindered efforts to determine specific dose-effect levels in rodents and humans. Based on published data, we recommend an adequate regular consumption of 0.015– 0.229 mg glycyrrhizin/kg body weight/day.
