Description.—tiquorice root varies much in size, the 
rgest pieces being 2.inches or more in diameter, and about 
4 or 5 inches long, with the bark on ; the wood is of a bright 
ellow colour, tough and fibrous. The taste 18 sweet at first, 
: Microscopic structure—Commencing from the exterior the 
k shows from 8 to 10 rows of closely packed brown tabular 
cells, then a cellular zone loaded with starch, next we meet 
ith the expanded ends of the medullary rays, which gradually _ 
become narrower towards the woody part of the root, between — 
tinuous with and having the same structure as those in the - 
k. The woody columns are made up of large fenestrated — 
renchyme continuous with that of the arian rays here 
there intrude. 
; (Pharmacographia, p. 158), liquorice “root contains in 
ce named giycyretilaes which is precipitated from a strong 
jon upon addition 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 amorphous yellow powder, 
Win, ng a strong bitter-sweet taste and an acid reaction.. It 
rms with hot: water a solution which gelatinizes on cooling, 
and does ‘not rotate the plane of polarization, From he 
analysis and experiments of Gorup-Besanez (1861), it appears 
ith dilute jdt acid, it is 
= ce named 
gh cyrretin, and an uncrystallizable sugar 
ors of sincoes, The gio of ever not yet been 
LEGUMINOS &. a 
‘Chemical composition. aati to Fliickiger and aes : 
ition to sugar and albuminous matter, a peculiar sweet sub- 
Ss not reduce alkaline tartrate of copper, is not deanna 
afterwards- a little bitter. The root is heavy and sinkg in — 
The wood is traversed. by large medullary rays 
So 
aa the most probable formula of glycyrrhizin is C4Hs6Q9, 2 
