Licorice - gan cao

Licorice

Chinese herbal medicine

Alias: Meicao, Micao, Guolao

Main effects: replenishing qi and tonifying the middle, removing phlegm and relieving cough, detoxifying, relieving pain and alleviating the properties of medicine

Licorice is a Chinese medicine commonly used to harmonize the properties of medicine. It has the effects of relieving sore throat, relieving cough and reducing phlegm, and enhancing spleen and stomach function. It can not only reduce the toxicity of drugs, but also balance the characteristics of different medicinal materials. It is often used to improve problems such as cough and asthma, physical fatigue, and drug compatibility reactions. Licorice mainly grows in arid sandy soil areas such as Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang. Among them, the "Liangwai Licorice" in Hangjin Banner, Inner Mongolia and the "Xizhen Licorice" in Minqin, Gansu are widely recognized for their firm texture and outstanding sweetness. Its sweetness mainly comes from the natural sugar substitute glycyrrhizin, which is widely used in food processing and drug manufacturing.

Licorice is sweet and flat in nature, and it belongs to the heart, lung, spleen, and stomach meridians.
Raw licorice is cool in nature and suitable for clearing heat and detoxifying; roasted licorice prepared with honey is warm in nature and is better at replenishing qi and regulating. It can not only replenish energy in the body, but also relieve pain, harmonize the efficacy of drugs, and has the functions of expectoration, cough relief and detoxification. Modern research has found that it contains active ingredients such as triterpenoid saponins and flavonoids.
Effects
Licorice can help enhance physical strength, relieve fatigue, improve digestive function, relieve cough and sputum, promote the discharge of toxins in the body, and relieve pain caused by stomach or muscle cramps. At the same time, it can reduce the irritation of other drugs, such as reducing the damage of certain drugs to the stomach.
What are the main effects and clinical applications of licorice?
Licorice is mainly used to improve the following problems: spleen and stomach weakness (manifested as indigestion, lack of physical strength), easy fatigue, palpitation and shortness of breath, cough with sputum, stomach and limb cramps and pain, skin redness, swelling, ulceration or suppurative infection, and can also relieve the toxicity of certain drugs.
Improve spleen and stomach weakness: often used in combination with ginseng, Atractylodes macrocephala and other medicinal materials.
Relieve palpitations and shortness of breath: For irregular heartbeats and intermittent pulses caused by insufficient qi and blood, as well as palpitations and chest tightness caused by blood deficiency, a large amount of honey-roasted licorice needs to be used in combination with ginseng, donkey-hide gelatin, and raw rehmannia.
Treat different types of coughs:
·Cough caused by wind-cold: Use ephedra and bitter almonds
·Cough caused by wind-heat: Use mulberry leaves and bitter almonds
·Cough caused by excessive phlegm: Use pinellia and tangerine peel
Dry cough with little phlegm: Use adenophora and ophiopogon
Relieve pain symptoms: Often used in combination with white peony root to improve stomachache and cramps in the limbs.
Treating infection and poisoning:
Skin suppurative infection: can be used alone or in combination with honeysuckle and forsythia.
Severe sore throat: can be used alone or in combination with Scrophularia and Ophiopogon
·It also has a detoxifying effect on some drug or food poisoning
Neutralizing drug side effects: It is often used in compound prescriptions to reduce drug toxicity, slow down the dryness of hot drugs or the stimulation of cold drugs, help drugs of different properties to work in coordination, and improve the unpleasant taste of drugs for easy taking.