Beyond Sugar Sweet

Sometimes even in nature danger has strange bedfellows. Who will ever suspect that licorice, a useful sugar replacement can be as dangerous as two sticks of cigarettes just because of one or two common active ingredients.

THE Greeks called it sweet (glukus) root (rhiza). Taxonomists named it Glycyrrhiza glabra (“sweet root” that is “smooth”). Yet we know it as “liquorice,” or simply “licorice.” Its active principle, glycyrrhizin, is 30 to 50 times sweeter than table sugar.

Thus it is a popular sweetener in candies. In fact, in Great Britain and the United States, licorice candies do exist. Chinese cuisine uses licorice as a culinary spice, often employed to flavor broths and foods simmered in soy sauce. Licorice also flavors soft drinks.

But don’t think of it as some kind of low-calorie sweetener, or sugar replacement because it contains around 100 calories per ounce.

What many of us may not have known is that tobacco products contain 90 percent licorice. Licorice adds a mellow, sweet but woody flavor to the usual tobacco taste.

However, like tobacco, it too generates some toxins found in the smoke. Curiously, glycyrrhizin can expand the airways, allowing smokers to inhale more smoke than they could otherwise get.

But another substance in licorice can be dangerously toxic. It is called glycyrrhizic acid. A study in 2002 published in the Journal of Forestry Research noted that licorice can contain between 6.38 to 11.41 percent of glycyrrhizic acid (an average of 8.9 percent), depending on the place of cultivation (the highest came from Zhaodong, Hailongijang; the lowest from Bachu, Zinjiang).

The European Commission (EC) warned in 2008 to avoid consuming more than... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 5 June 2013.

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