_Succus Liquiritiæ_, _Extractum Glycyrrhizæ
Italicum_; _Italian Extract of Liquorice_,
_Spanish Liquorice_, _Spanish Juice_;
F. _Jus ou Suc de Réglisse_; G.
_Süssholzsaft_, _Lakriz_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Glycyrrhiza glabra_ L., see preceding article, p.
179.
=History=—Inspissated liquorice juice was known in the time of
Dioscorides, and may be traced in the writings of Oribasius and
Marcellus Empiricus in the latter half of the 4th century, and in those
of Paulus Ægineta in the 7th. It appears to have been in common use in
Europe during the middle ages. In A.D. 1264, “_Liquorice_” is charged
in the Wardrobe Accounts of Henry III.;[728] and as the article cost
3_d_. per lb., or the same price as grains of paradise and one-third
that of cinnamon, we are warranted in supposing the _extract_ and not
the mere _root_ is intended. Again, in the Patent of Pontage granted by
Edward I., A.D. 1305, to aid in repairing the London Bridge, permission
is given to lay toll on various foreign commodities including
_Liquorice_.[729] A political song written in 1436[730] makes mention
of _Liquorice_ as a production of Spain, but the plant is not named as
an object of cultivation by Herrera, the author of a work on Spanish
agriculture in 1513.
Saladinus,[731] who wrote about the middle of the 15th century,
names it among the wares kept by the Italian apothecaries; and it is
enumerated in a list of drugs of the city of Frankfort written about
the year 1450.[732]
Dorsten,[733] in the first half of the 16th century, mentions the
liquorice plant as abundant in many parts of Italy, and describes the
method of making the _Succus_ by crushing and boiling the fresh root.
Mattioli[734] states that the juice made into _pastilli_ was brought
every year from Apulia, and especially from the neighbourhood of Monte
Gargano. Extract of liquorice was made at Bamberg in Germany, where the
plant is still largely cultivated, as early as 1560.[735]
=Manufacture=—This is conducted on a large scale in Spain, Southern
France, Sicily, Calabria, Austria, Southern Russia (Astracan and
Kasan), Greece (Patras) and Asia Minor (Sokia and Nazli, near Smyrna);
but the extract with which England is supplied is almost exclusively
the produce of Calabria, Sicily and Spain.
The process of manufacture varies only by reason of the amount of
intelligence with which it is performed, and the greater or less
perfection of the apparatus employed. As witnessed by one of us (H.)
at Rossano in Calabria in May, 1872, it may be thus described from
notes made at the time. The factory employs about 60 persons, male
and female. The root having been taken from the ground the previous
winter, is stacked in the yard around the factory; it is mostly of the
thickness of the fingers, with here and there a piece of larger size up
to a diameter of nearly 2 inches; some of it sprouting.
[728] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices_, ii. (1866) 543.
[729] _Chronicles of London Bridge_, 1827. 155.
[730] Wright, _Political Poems and Songs_ (Master of the Rolls series),
ii. (1861) 160.
[731] _Compendium Aromatariorum_, Bonon. 1488.
[732] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873, page 10, No. 204.
[733] _Botanicon_, Francof. 1540. 175.
[734] _Comm. in lib. Diosc._, Basil. 1574. 485.
[735] Gesner, _Horti Germanici_, Argent. 1561. 257, b.
As required, the root is taken within the building and crushed under
a heavy millstone to a pulp, water-power being employed. It is then
transferred to boilers and boiled with water over a naked fire. The
decoction is run off and the residual root pressed in circular bags
like those used in the olive-mills. The liquor which is received into
cisterns below the floor is then pumped up into copper pans, in which
the evaporation is conducted also over the naked fire—even to the
very last, care being taken by constant stirring to avoid burning the
extract. The extract or _pasta_ is removed from the pan while warm, and
taken in small quantities to an adjoining apartment where a number of
women are employed in rolling it into sticks. It is first weighed into
portions, each of which the woman seated at the end of a long table
tears with her hand into about a dozen pieces. These are passed to the
women sitting next who roll them with their hands into cylindrical
sticks, the table on which the rolling is done being of wood, and the
_pasta_ moistened with oil to prevent its adhesion to the hands. Near
the further end of the table are some frames made of marble or metal,
clean and bright, so arranged as to bring the sticks when rolled in
them to the proper length and thickness. When thus adjusted, they are
carefully ranged on a board, and a woman then stamps them with the name
of the manufacturer. Lastly the sticks laid on boards are stacked up in
a room to dry.
In some establishments the vacuum-pan has been introduced for the
inspissation of the decoction. At the great manufactory of Mr. A. O.
Clarke at Sokia near Smyrna, all the processes are performed by steam
power.
=Description=—Liquorice juice of good quality is met with in
cylindrical sticks stamped at one end with the maker’s name or mark.
They are of various sizes, but generally not larger than 6 to 7 inches
long by about an inch in diameter. They are black, when new or warm
slightly flexible, but breaking when struck, and then displaying a
sharp-edged fracture, and shining conchoidal surface on which a few air
bubbles are perceptible; thin splinters are translucent. The extract
has a special odour and dissolves in the mouth with a peculiar strong
sweet taste. By complete drying, it loses from 11 to 17 per cent. of
water.
Several varieties of Stick Liquorice are met with in English commerce,
and command widely different prices. The most famous is the _Solazzi
Juice_, manufactured at Corigliano, a small town of Calabria in the
gulf of Taranto, at an establishment belonging to the sons of Don
Onorato Gaetani, duke of Laurenzano and prince of Piedimonte d’Alife,
who inherited the manufacture from his father-in-law, the Cavaliere
Domenico Solazzi Castriota. The Solazzi Juice destined for the English
market is usually shipped at Naples; it has for many years been wholly
consigned to two firms in London, and in quantity not always equal
to the demand. Of the other varieties we may mention _Barracco_,
manufactured at the establishment of Messieurs Barracco at Cotrone on
the eastern coast of Calabria; _Corigliano_, produced at a factory
at Corigliano, belonging to Baron Compagna. The sticks stamped
_Pignatelli_ are from the works of Vincenzo Pignatelli, prince of
Strongoli, at Torre Cerchiora, where 300 to 400 workmen are employed.
The juice is also imported in a block form, having while warm and soft
been allowed to run into the wooden case in which it is exported.
This juice, which is known as _Liquorice Paste_, is largely imported
from Spain and Asia Minor, but on account of a certain bitterness is
unsuited for use as a sweetmeat.
=Chemical Composition=—Hard extract of liquorice, such as that just
described, is essentially different in composition and properties from
the Extract of Liquorice (_Extractum Glycyrrhizæ_) of the _British
Pharmacopœia_.[736] The latter is a soft, hygroscopic substance,
entirely soluble in cold water, whereas the so-called _Spanish Juice_
when treated with cold water leaves a large residue undissolved.
It has been sometimes supposed that the presence of this residue
indicates adulteration, but such is far from being the fact, as was
conclusively shown by the researches of a French Commission appointed
to investigate the process recommended by Delondre.[737] This
commission subjected liquorice root to the successive action of cold
water, boiling water, and lastly of steam. By the first menstruum 15
per cent., and by the second an additional 7½ per cent., were obtained
of a hygroscopic extract much more soluble than commercial liquorice,
and totally unsuitable for being moulded into sticks. The residue
having been then exhausted by steam, 16 per cent. was obtained of an
extract differing entirely from those of the previous operations.
It was a dry friable substance, cracking and falling to pieces in
the drying stove, having a sweet taste without acridity, not readily
dissolving in the mouth, and very imperfectly soluble in cold water.
This then was the substance required to give firmness to the more
soluble matter, and to render possible the preparation of an extract
possessing that degree of solubility and hardness which would render it
an agreeable sweetmeat, as well as a permanent and stable commodity. In
fact, by treating the root at once with steam according to Delondre’s
process, the experimenters obtained 42 to 45 per cent. of extract
having all the qualities desired in good Italian or Spanish Juice.
When the latter substance is suspended in water undisturbed, the
soluble matter may be dissolved out, the stick still retaining its
original form. Glycyrrhizin, which is but slightly soluble in cold
water, remains to some extent in the residue, and by an alkaline
solution may be afterwards extracted together with colouring matter and
probably also pectin. The proportion of soluble matter which the best
varieties of liquorice juice yield to cold water varies from about 60
to 70 per cent. A sample of Solazzi Juice recently examined by one of
us, lost 8·4 per cent. when dried at 100° C.; it was then exhausted
by 60 times its weight of cold water used in successive quantities,
by which means 66·8 per cent. of soluble matter were removed. The
residue consisted of minute starch granules, fragments of the root, and
colouring matter partially soluble in ammonia. Small shreds of copper
were also visible to the naked eye. The dried juice yielded 6·3 per
cent. of ash.
[736] Made by treating the crushed root with cold water.
[737] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxx. (1856) 428; an abstract by Redwood in
_Pharm. Journ._ xvi. (1857) 403.
Corigliano liquorice treated in the same manner gave 71·2 per cent. of
extract soluble in cold water; Barracco liquorice 64·9.
The small liquorice lozenges known as _Pontefract Cakes_ (Dunhill’s),
not previously dried, gave 71 per cent. of matter soluble in cold water.
=Commerce=—The value of the imports of Liquorice into the United
Kingdom has been for the last five years as follows:—
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
£89,482 £83,832 £70,165 £55,129 £75,991
The last named sum represents a quantity of 28,000 cwt., of which
11,170 cwt. were furnished by Italy, and the remainder by Turkey,
France, Spain and other countries.
The total exports of Liquorice Paste from Smyrna were estimated in 1872
as 1,200 to 1,400 tons (24,000 to 28,000 cwt.) per annum.
=Uses=—Stick liquorice is sucked as a remedy for coughs, and by
children as a sweetmeat. It is also used in lozenges, and in some
pharmacopœias is admitted as the raw material from which to prepare
soft extract of liquorice.
The block liquorice, of which a large quantity is imported, is chiefly
used in the manufacture of tobacco for smoking and chewing.