Description
Liquorice is a herbaceous perennial plant, common in the South of Europe and in the Middle East, whose roots with bitter-sweet taste represent one of the oldest spices, used for flavouring of sweets and drinks.
Slightly spread in the spontaneous flora, it is grown in the South of the country as medicinal plant.
Dioscoride gave it the designation of Glycyrrhiza, which means liquorice. In the Middle Ages, it was knows under the name Liquirita, a name that is also kept today for the root, as a part of the plant with biotherapeutic action.
Use
In the dermato-cosmetics field, liquorice is used under the form of decoction, tincture, extract.
It is indicated in the treatment of skin diseases, herpes, psoriasis, eczemas.
As a main component of the liquorice extract, the glycyrrhizic acid has antiherpetic, anti-inflammatory, bacteriostatic action, inhibits the herpes virus, causing even the extracellular inactivation of such, and thus the relapses are also inhibited.