Liquorice and its health implications

This article presents an overview of the health implications of liquorice, Liquorice has beneficial applications in the medicinal and the confectioner y sectors; the substance, therefore, is both widely available and commercia lly attractive. However, the ingestion of liquorice, and/or its active meta bolites, can sometimes produce an acquired form of apparent mineralocortico id excess (AME) syndrome, expressed as sodium retention, potassium loss and suppression of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, in addition to cl inical consequences such as raised blood pressure and oedema. Moreover, the se metabolic changes, the mechanisms underlying which are highlighted in th e accompanying text, are associated with a number of additional clinical sy mptoms. Considering the easy availability of liquorice itself and also of o ther products containing its active metabolites, it is quite possible that the health burden of liquorice-induced morbidity could be substantial. Heal thcare practitioners need to be fully aware of the risks in view of a large number of reports in the literature concerning its toxicity.