Name: Licorice naked – licorice gola (growing and cultivation)
Licorice naked (licorice gola) Glycyrrhiza glabra L.
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Synonyms: licorice, smooth licorice, glandular licorice, Spanish licorice, sweet root, licorice root, licorice root (Ukrainian solodets, licorice root).
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Description. Perennial herbaceous plant from the leguminous family (Leguminosae), 60120 cm high, with a powerful root system consisting of a thick, short rhizome and the main vertical root, reaching a length of 45 m. second and next orders. Stem erect, slightly branched. Leaves are short-petiolate, alternate, pinnate. The flowers are whitish-violet, collected in rare axillary racemes. The fruit is a straight or curved bean. Seeds kidney-shaped, greenish-gray. Blooms in June August; seeds ripen in August September.
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Medicinal raw materials : roots with underground shoots.
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Habitat. Grows in floodplains, along the banks of irrigation canals, reservoirs, in saline steppe meadows.
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Distribution . It grows in the steppe, desert and semi-desert regions of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, in the south of the European part of the USSR.
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Composition of active substances. The roots and rhizomes contain 20-23% glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhizic acid, or triterpene saponin, potassium and calcium salt of glycyrrhizic acid, flavonoids liquiritin, liquiritozide, liquiritigenin (4,7-dioxaflavone); glucose, essential oil, yellow pigment, vitamin C and asparagine.
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Application . Licorice has been used in ancient medicine. It was part of many medicines for the treatment of chest diseases, asthma, coughs, etc.
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Preparations from its roots in the form of an aqueous decoction or infusion (10 g per 200 g of water), in the form of a dry concentrate and liquid extract are used as an expectorant, anti-inflammatory and emollient for respiratory diseases, as well as a choleretic and laxative. In recent years, licorice products have been successfully used against asthma. Licorice root is part of many complex medicines mixed with other plants (breast, stomach, diuretic tea). Licorice powder is widely used as a base in the manufacture of pills and as an agent that improves the smell and taste of medicines.
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Licorice is widely used in a number of other industries (in brewing, when urinating apples). Fire extinguishers are charged with licorice root, as it forms a thick foam with water.
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Some countries use licorice roots to make chewing tobacco.
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Collection. Licorice preparations are produced in our country on a large scale, in this respect it holds the first place among medicinal plants.
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Raw licorice is exported to many foreign countries.
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The plant is harvested in September October or early spring, before the shoots begin to grow.
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Mass collection in thickets is carried out by plowing up the roots and rhizomes with tractor plows. When the herbage is not frequent, they dig it out with shovels. The dug roots are shaken off the ground, the aerial part is cut with knives.
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Drying. Dug out rhizomes with roots are dried in the open air, in long and narrow piles, turning over from time to time. After wilting, the roots are cleaned of bark, put in small piles for drying in the sun. Some of the roots are harvested unpeeled.
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Pack. Dry raw materials are pressed into bales of 140175 kg without sheathing, covered with iron hoops.
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Storage . Store in a well ventilated and dry area.
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Quality requirement. In accordance with the State Pharmacopoeia X, licorice raw materials should be pieces of roots and underground shoots of a cylindrical shape of various lengths, with a thickness of 0.5 to 5 cm or more. Allowed: for whole unrefined raw materials total ash 8%; ash, insoluble in 10% hydrochloric acid, 2.5; roots flabby, yellow-brown at a break, remnants of stems 4; impurity organic and mineral on 1%.
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For whole refined raw materials, total ash is 6%; ash, insoluble in 10% hydrochloric acid, 1; roots, poorly peeled, 15; roots darkened and brownish above, but light yellow at the break 20; organic and mineral impurities 0.5%.