American Licorice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the candy company, see American Licorice Company.
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| Glycyrrhiza lepidota (Nutt.) Pursh |
American Licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota) is a species of Glycyrrhiza native to most of North America, from central Canada south through the United States to California, Texas and Virginia, but absent from the southeastern states. It is also sometimes known in the United States as "wild licorice", to distinguish it from the related European Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) which is occasionally cultivated.
The plant grows in moist soils; although it will grow in heavy soil it prefers sandy soil. It grows to 40–100 cm (16–40 in) tall, and has long tough brown roots which are said to be sweet and were used as food and for medicinal purposes by Native Americans. American Licorice is not sweet from sugar but from glycyrrhizin, the acid ammonium salt of nitrogenous tri-basic acid, glycyrrhizic acid. Glycyrrhizin may increase blood pressure (aka hypertension) by interfering with cortisol conversion.
American Licorice is grazed by cattle, but not preferred and will increase under grazing as competing plants are grazed off. It has light green to white flowers in the spring which ripen in the fall to clusters of burs which contain pods of small bean like seeds.
It can be used as a pioneer species to revegetate bare or disturbed ground and is often the first species to invade a receding alkali flat.
There is a market for American Licorice root both for medicinal uses and flavoring; also the sweetening of tobacco products.
[edit] External links
- University of Saskatchewan
- U.S. Department of Agriculture - PLANTS Database - American Licorice
- University of Maryland Medical Center
