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Licorice medicinal plant of the year 2012

Licorice is awarded as medicinal plant of the year 2012

11/22/2011

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza) became the „Medicinal plant of the year 2012“ named. The medicinal plant that has been used for thousands of years for the treatment of various diseases such as coughing, hoarseness or even gastric complaints has been selected for this award by a team of scientists from the University of Würzburg and experts from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Licorice, which is now the most popular licorice-flavored medicinal plant of the year, has been used in phytotherapy (herbal medicine) for more than 3,000 years. Especially tea produced from the grated roots of liquorice has been shown to have a beneficial effect on various diseases. For example, licorice tea is still a popular home remedy for hoarseness and cough. But even with gastric ulcers, the tea can develop a very positive development.

Licorice has been known as a medicinal plant for millennia
Like Johannes Mayer from „Study circle Development history of pharmacology“ in Frankfurt, licorice has been known for millennia as a medicinal plant whose positive effect against numerous complaints today is clearly scientifically proven. Thus, Mayer was particularly convinced of the healing properties of a tea made from licorice and thyme for colds. „For me, the best that there is“, so the statement of the expert. In addition, the positive effect of the medicinal plant used as the main ingredient of licorice also demonstrably helped against hoarseness and stomach ulcers, explained Mayer. In addition, licorice as a medicinal plant in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the standard remedies for numerous health problems. The up to one meter high licorice shrubs, which belong to the genus of the butterfly plants, are distributed as a wild plant mainly in the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the Caucasus to Iran, Central Asia, southern Russia and China, explained the expert. However, the warmth-loving plant is also found on the Upper Rhine and has been cultivated at Bamberg for around 500 years, explained Johannes Mayer. In herbal medicine, according to the expert only the dried roots of licorice perennials are used, which has more than 400 different ingredients. Among them, the glycyrrhizin, which according to Johannes Mayer is almost 50 times as sweet as cane sugar.

Sustainable production of the medicinal plant required
The experts at the University of Würzburg and the WWF explained that most of the roots used as medicines or liquorice are collected wild. The natural occurrence is a clear advantage, since no fertilizers or pesticides are used here. „So I have pure organic produce“, emphasized Johannes Mayer. However, gathering in nature is by no means uncontroversial, because the great demand for licorice root has already led to overuse in some regions, said Susanne Honnef, expert of the WWF. The quantities required partially limit the possibilities of natural reproduction. For example, Germany alone imports more than 500 tons of licorice per year. Therefore, the WWF is committed to a sustainable harvest, where certain standards must be met in order not to endanger the licorice stock in the long term. The goal must be to enable the use of the plant and at the same time to preserve the stocks, said Susanne Honnef. For this purpose, the „FairWild“-Certificate set up, which is not yet noted on German products, Honnef continues. According to the WWF expert, around 15,000 of the approximately 60,000 medicinal plants worldwide are endangered.

Pharmacy of nature
According to Johannes Mayer, the annual choice of the medicinal plant of the year by the Würzburg study group, which has been held annually since 1999, is primarily aimed at the „Pharmacy of nature“ to make known. The panel of experts that make the selection includes medical historians, doctors, pharmacists and biologists, who not only pay attention to the healing properties of the selected plants, but also generally evaluate the cultural and medical history of plants. In 2011, the passion flower was the medicinal plant of the year. (Fp)