Popular names: licorice, komchug, licorice, smooth licorice, licorice root, sweet root.
Botanical characteristic. Bean family. Perennial herbaceous plant with a powerful root system. The main root, as well as vertical and horizontal rhizomes, form a multi-tiered network of weaves. The roots penetrate deep into the soil (up to 8 m). The stem is branched, 1.5-2 m high. The leaves are alternate, unpaired-pinnately compound, ovate, glandular-hairy. The flowers are whitish-violet, collected in a brush. The fruit is a leathery brown bean. Blooms in May – June.
Spreading. It grows in floodplains and river valleys, on sands, salt licks, in the steppe and semi-steppe zones of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, the south-European part of the USSR, in the basin of the river. Ural.
Medicinal raw materials. Roots and underground shoots are used, which are harvested from March to November. The dug roots are cleaned from the ground, the stems are cut, washed with cold water, cut into pieces and dried in the air under a canopy or in attics. When harvesting raw materials, only 75% of the total amount of the growing plant should be selected, and 25% should be left for the restoration of licorice through its vegetative propagation. Repeated harvesting of roots in the same area can be carried out only after 6-8 years. The shelf life of raw materials is up to 9 years.
Of the other species, Ural licorice and Korzhinsky licorice are also used in practice.
Ural licorice is a perennial herbaceous plant with a powerfully developed root system. The stem is branched, up to 70 cm high. The flowers are pale purple. Blooms in June – July. It grows in Kazakhstan, in the southern regions of Western Siberia and the Urals, in Altai, in the Tuva Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in the desert, steppe and forest-steppe zones.
Licorice Korzhinsky differs from the Ural one in smaller size and shape of leaves and fruits. This is a perennial herbaceous plant, long-rooted, with pinnate ovate leaves. The flowers are light purple. Blooms in June – July. It grows in the desert and steppe zones between the Volga, Ural, Tobol and Ishim rivers, rising in the north to the cities of Kuibyshev, Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk, and in the south it reaches the Caspian and Azov seas.
Chemical composition. Rhizomes and roots contain a large amount (up to 23%) of the sweet glycoside-like substance glycyrrhizin, 4% of flavonoids (liquiritin, liquirotoside, isoliquiritin, etc.), a lot of glucose, sucrose, starch, mucus, gum, ascorbic acid, tannins and other substances. Saponins, tannins, flavonoids, essential oils, sugars, pigments and other substances were found in the aerial parts of the plant, which makes it possible to use them as anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic agents.
pharmacological properties. Licorice preparations have a mild laxative, expectorant, emollient, diuretic and anti-inflammatory effect. The latter is due to the presence of glycyrrhizin, which is found in the plant in the form of potassium and calcium salts. Liquiritozide eliminates spasms of smooth muscles and has antispasmodic properties. The expectorant effect of the root depends on the content of a large amount of mucous substances in it, and the laxative effect on the presence of gum. Licorice root is part of many pectoral, diuretic and laxative preparations. In the literature there are indications of the ability of licorice to regulate water-salt metabolism.
Application. In veterinary practice, licorice root is recommended as an enveloping, expectorant and, less commonly, laxative, also for inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory diseases, as a flavoring agent for the preparation of certain drugs, as a shaping mass for pills. Assign inside in the form of a decoction of 1:20 in doses: horses 20-75 g, cattle 25-100, sheep 5-15, pigs 5-10, calves 1-10, dogs 0.1-2, cats 0.05 -1, chickens 0.1 – 1 g.
Licorice root is part of the breast elixir and breast collection No. 2.
Our industry produces two licorice products. Dry malt root extract – brownish-yellow dry powder. Thick licorice root extract is a thick brown mass, which is used for the manufacture of boluses, pills, cereals as a formative agent. Used for the same indications as licorice root. Doses inside: horses and cattle 15-80 g, small cattle 3-15, pigs 5-20, dogs 1-5, chickens 0.2-1, cats 0.2-2 g.
calf
Rp.: Speciei pectoralis 50.0
DS Brew one teaspoon in a glass of boiling water, insist, strain and prescribe 1/4-1/5 cup per reception 3 times every day (expectorant).