  |
Phone toll-free 800-291-2143
Fabaceae Family - "Licorice root, American Licorice, Sweet Wood"
Glycyrrhiza is from the Greek word glycys meaning "sweet" and rhiza meaning "root". Lepidota means "scaly".
Common plant to the Great Plains and Prairies and outward to both coasts. Yellow-white, alfalfa-like flowers bloom from May to August . Wild Licorice loves disturbed areas like railroad right-of-ways and roadsides. Can reach 3 feet; stem is covered with tiny sticky hairs. There is more to this plant below the ground than above - the widely-spreading roots can reach down more than 5 feet.
An extract made from the roots of Wild Licorice has been used as an expectorant. Early settlers used a decoction from the roots to treat fevers in nursing Mothers. The Blackfoot tribe made a tea from the leaves and drank it to treat earaches. Wild licorice was also used as a purgative, as an agent to aid blood-clotting and as a treatment for inflamed mucous membranes and stomach ulcers.
The root was quite popular with Native Americans who chewed it raw or rasted in ashes. Early settlers also chewed the root raw and used it to flavor medicine, candy, root beer and chewing tobacco.
