Scientific Name: Glycyrrhiza uralensis Common Name: Chinese Licorice Other Common Names: Asian Liquorice, Chinese Licorice, Gan Cao, Gan-Cao Plant Type: Perennial Where To Plant: Full Sun to Partly Shady Soil Types: Average Zones (See US Zone map): 9-10 Germination: Medium Number of Seeds Per Pack: 50 Uses: Medicinal Notes: Chinese medicinal herb. It is in most prescriptions, benefits most organs and helps the taste of all medicine.
Chinese licorice Chinese licorice mainly comes from Glycyrrhiza uralensis. It is found in dry grassy plains, and sunny mountainsides from much of northern China, especially the Asian steppes to the west. Most of the supply comes from northwest China. While it is the main species used in Asia, European licorice also occurs in wild desert regions, dry plains, grassy plains with salty alkaline soil, and fallow wastelands that were once used for producing rice, wheat, and millet in northwest China. These two species along with another Chinese native, Glycyrrhiza inflata, are official drug plants in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The Chinese call licorice gan-cao, which means "sweet herb." An ancient Chinese herb, it is mentioned in one of the earliest Chinese herbals attributed to the Divine Plowman Emperor, Shen Nong, surviving from the first century. The work is known as Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Virtually all of the important Chinese medicinal herbs of today were mentioned in this important work, which has never been translated into English.
In Chinese medicine, licorice is one of the more widely used herbal drugs. Unlike European herbal medicine, in which herbs are often used alone, in traditional Chinese medicine most herbs are used in prescriptions with 3 or more herbs, sometimes 10 herbs, or even 50 or 100 herbs in a single prescription. According to the theories of traditional Chinese medicine, the prescriptions are separated into the monarch or main drug, minister drugs, assistant drugs, and guide drugs. The monarch drug is the "king" of the prescription and has the primary effect on the health condition. Many "assistant" drugs cooperate with a major ingredient in a prescription to produce a better effect on one particular organ or condition. The minister drug helps to synergistically increase the effect of the monarch drug. The "guide drug" is added to enhance the effectiveness of other ingredients, reduce toxicity or improve taste. Licorice is used in many Chinese herbal prescriptions as a guide drug to enhance the activity of other ingredients, reduce toxicity, as well as improve flavor. It is said that licorice is used in as many as half of all traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.
