Talk:Glycyrrhizin

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[edit] Characteristic licorice flavor?

Additionally, its characteristic licorice flavor makes it unsuitable as a direct flavor substitute for sugar.

What does this mean exactly? Glycyrrhizin tastes sweet, certainly, and is sometimes used in the manufacture of Licorice candy. But 'licorice candy' is flavoured with the strong spice anise. The licorice root does not taste like anise (except by association).

Perhaps substitute 'characteristic anise seed flavour', and give references to this fact? or remove. njh 04:05, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Licorice candy is flavoured with anise seed, or even with synthetic anethole or anisole, because they are less expensive means of giving a similar sensory quality. I find something mildly absurd in saying that something does not taste like itself simply because its use in supplying a given flavor has been largely superceded by a cheaper substitute. Shimmin 14:51, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

My point is that licorice root does not taste aniseedy (at least in my experience), only that weird sweet flavour. So the original statement is ambiguous or wrong. Maybe the licorice root I've had has been modified in some way to remove the flavour, but that would go against the claim that Glycyrrhizin has that flavour.

A quick google finds "The ‘licorice’ flavour in some confectionery is derived from the herb anise (Pimpinella anisum) rather than from licorice root."[1] njh

First, the facts. Anethole is the principal flavorant in anise. Glycyrrhizin is the principal flavorant in licorice (the root). Most licorice (the candy) is flavored with anise, and it therefore tastes like anethole. I dispute none of these statements.

Now, your impression. Your impression is that there is nothing at all similar between the tastes of anethole and glycyrrhizin, aside from both being sweet. I disagree with this impression, but I'll grant it for the sake of discussion, because your proposed remedy makes no sense to me, even in light of your impression. You propose that because glycyrrhizin does not taste like licorice (the candy), we should instead say it tastes like anise (the flavorant in the candy you say it does not taste like). Please explain. Shimmin 20:03, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Yep I agree with all of that. I was merely wondering about the abiguous nature of the original statement that says that glycyrrhizin tastes like licorice. Yes, it tastes like the root, which is unsurprising. However, in my experience the root does not taste like aniseed. So a random inexperienced person (like me) would probably interpret the original statement to mean that glycyrrhizin tastes like aniseed. Does it or doesn't it? If it does, then saying it tastes like aniseed seems a reasonable and unambiguous statement, if it doesn't, then it is currently worse than vacuous, giving the impression that it tastes like aniseed. You say that glycyrrhizin tastes like anethole (i.e. aniseed) and I'm happy to believe you. If you think that the current reading is not confusing to others then I'll assume that I'm just stupid and go away. njh 05:07, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

I see where you're coming from now. I'm not exactly sure what a better revision would be, because taste is a sufficiently subjective experience that professional tasters must rigorously train themselves and compare notes with each other to be able to establish an agreed-upon language, and I am no professional taster. I do find much in commonly between the sweet, vaguely medicinal tastes of both licorice root and aniseed, but if you do not, I'm sure you are not alone in the matter. Since a better turn of phrase is not coming to me at present, feel free to edit if anything great strikes you. The authoritative references I have at hand don't actually describe the flavor, except to say that glycyrrhizin is the principal flavorant of licorice root, which rapidly leads to a circular description. =( Shimmin 12:10, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Minor suggested change: Glycyrrhizinic acid is listed as another name for Glycyrrhizinin, which the text indicates is not the case. This is significant because of recent studies showing very different effects of the two similar compounds on hepatocytes. (JBioChem 280 p10556, 2005). 128.227.99.8 (talk) 15:11, 30 May 2008 (UTC)Chris Batich