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314 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Russian Licorice. Nearly cylindrical, tapering, sometimes split 

 longitudinally, 15 to 30 cm. in length, 10 to 30 mm. in diameter; 

 externally lemon-yellow, nearly smooth, porous, with detachable 

 bast fibers and circular rootlet-scars, cork if present, more or less 

 easily abraded; internally lemon-yellow, bark, coarsely fibrous, 

 wood radially cleft, not so fibrous as in the Spanish variety. 



Inner Structure. Resembling Spanish licorice, but the peridenn 

 layers are wanting. 



Constituents. About 3 per cent of glycyrrhizin, a crystalline, 

 intensely sweet substance consisting of the calcium and potassium 

 salts of glycyrrhizinic acid, which latter is an ester of glycyrrhetinic 

 acid: asparagin 2 to 4 per cent (see Althaea); a bitter principle 

 glycyramarin, which occurs principally in the bark and hence is less 

 abundant in the Russian licorice; a volatile oil 0.03 per cent; man- 

 nit; considerable starch and calcium oxalate chiefly in crystal fibers. 



Houseman claims that a 99 per cent alcohol gives an extract which 

 corresponds more nearly to the amount of total resins in the drug. 

 The alcohol extract in different varieties of licorice varied as follows : 

 Italian 4.8; Spanish (Toledo), 4.9; Turkish- Arabic 5.4; Anatolian, 

 5.5; Russian, 5.6; and Syrian, 7 per cent. He also found nitrogen 

 in glycyrrhizic acid. Aqueous licorice extract contains a coloring 

 principle which dyes silk a fast yellow. (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1912, 

 84, p. 531; Ibid., 1916, 88, p. 97). 



Licorice is a valuable corrective for disagreeable-tasting medi- 

 cinal substances. Glycyrrhizin in dilutions of 1 in 20,000 still pos- 

 sesses a distinct sweet taste. (Kobert, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1915, 

 p. 555). 



Allied Plants. The root of wild or American licorice. Gly- 

 cyrrhiza lepidota, a perennial herb indigenous to western North 

 America, is somewhat similar to Spanish licorice. It contains 6 

 per cent of glycyrrhizin and considerable glycyramarin. 



A number of plants of this family contain principles similar to 

 glycyrrhizin, as the root and leaves of Indian or Jamaica licorice 

 (Abrus precatorius) of India and the West Indies; the root of Ononis 

 spinosa, a perennial herb of Europe, and other species of Ononis as 

 well; the locust (Robinia Pseudacacia) of the United States and 

 Canada; Caragana pygmoea of Siberia and northern China; Hedy- 

 sarum americanum of the northern United States and Canada; Peri- 

 andra mediterranea, and P. dulcis of Brazil and Paraguay, also the 

 root of the English walnut (Juglans regia); the rhizome of Poly- 

 podium vulgare (Filices); and wild licorice, Galium circaezans 

 (Fam. Leguminosae). 



