(Glycyrrhiza Glabra.)
_Liquorice Root._ _Stick Liquorice._
QUALITIES. _Taste_, sweet and mucilaginous. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION. Gum,
with a peculiar modication of saccharine matter (_Glycion_), or sugar in
its purest form, for it is not fermentable; on which account it is added
to beer for the purpose of imparting a sweet taste, and at the same time
enabling it to keep better. SOLUBILITY. Water extracts both its
principles, but by long coction it becomes bitter; alcohol extracts only
its saccharine matter. MED. USES. It is principally employed as a
demulcent in combination with other mucilaginous vegetables; the root
will yield nearly half its weight of extract. Liquorice covers the taste
of some unpalatable medicines more effectually than any other substance,
and it has long enjoyed the reputation of assuaging thirst, whence the
Greeks distinguished this root by the term _Adipson_; and, perhaps, the
English word _Liquorice_ may be derived from the same belief. OFFICINAL
PREP. _Decoct: Sarsaparill: comp._ L.D. (=O=) Infus: _Lini_, L. (=B=)
_Extract: Glycyrrhizæ._ L.E.D. _Confectio Sennæ_[516] L.E. (=O=)
ADULTERATIONS. The powdered root is generally sophisticated with flour,
and sometimes with powdered guaiacum; the fraud may be detected by its
colour being a fine pale, instead of a brownish yellow, and by its
reduced or foreign flavour.