RADIX GLYCYRRHIZv^^:. • 181 



Dried liquorice root is supplied in commerce either with or without 

 the thin brown coat. In the latter state it is known as 'peeled or 



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kcoytlcafed. The English root, of which the supply is very limited, is 

 usually offered cut into pieces 3 or 4 inches long, and of the thickness 

 of the little finger. 



Bjmnish Liquorice Moot, also known as Tortosa or Alicante 

 Liquorice, is imported in bundles several feet in length, consisting of 



straight unpeeled roots and runners, varying in thickness from J to 1 

 inch. The root is tolerably smooth or somewhat transversely cracked 

 and longitudinally wrinkled ; that from Tortosa is usually of a good 

 external appearance, that from Alicante sometimes untrimmed, dirty, of 

 very unequal size, showing frequently the knobby crowns of the root. 

 Alicante liquorice root is sometimes shipped in bags or loose. 



Russian Liquorice Moot, which is much used in England, is we pre- 

 sume derived from G. glabra var.glcmdulifera. It is imported from Ham- 

 burg in large bales, and is met with both peeled and unpeeled. The 

 pieces are 12 to 18 inches long, with a diameter of I of an inch to 1 or 

 even 2 inches. Sometimes very old roots, split down the centre and 

 forming channelled pieces as much as 3J inches wide at the crown 

 end, are to be met with. This liquorice in addition to being sweet has 

 a certain amount of bitterness. 



Microscopic Structure — The root exhibits well-marked struc- 

 tural peculiarities. The corky layer is made up of the usual tabular 

 cellsj the primary cortical tissue of a few rows of cells. TJie chief 

 portion of the bark consists of liber or endophloeum, and is built up for 

 the most part of parenchymatous tissue accompanied by elongated 

 fibres of two kinds, partly united into true liber-bundles and partly 

 forming a kind of network, the smaller threads of which deviate consi- 

 derably from the straight line. Solution of iodine imparts an orange 

 jue to both kinds of bast-bundles, and well displays the structural 

 features of the bark. 



Tile woody column of the root exhibits three distinct forms of cell, 

 namely ligneous cells (libriform) with oblique ends ; parenchymatous, 

 almost cubic cells ; and large pitted vessels. In the Russian root, the 

 size of all the cells is much more considerable than in the Spanish. 



Chemical Composition— The root of liquorice contains, in addition 

 ^ '^ugar and albuminous matter, a peculiar sweet substance named 

 ^pcyrrUzin, which is precipitated from a strong decoction upon addi- 

 ^^t'n of an acid or solution of cream of tartar, or neutral or basic 

 acetate of lead. When washed with dilute alcohol and dried, it is an 

 aniorphous yellow powder, having a strong bitter-sweet taste and an 

 ^eid reaction. It forms with hot water a solution which gelatinizes on 

 ^oohng, does not reduce alkaline tartrate of copper, is not fermentable, 

 ^«tl does not rotate the plane of polarization. From the analysis and 

 «^periments of Rosch, performed in the laboratory of Gorup-Bcsancz at 

 juangen, in 1876, the formula C'K-'O^ was derived for glycyrrhizin. 

 ^l boihug it with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric acid it is resolved 

 7* a resinous amorphous bitter substance named Glycyrretin, and an 

 I^ciystallizable sugar having the characters of glucose. The formula 



lolft^^y^'^etin has not yet been settled. Wese....^ «.. ., . 



''"', showed that 65 per cent, of it may be .obtained from glycyrrhizin. 



