An Indexed Bibliography. The Scientific Literature on Selected Herbs, and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants of the Temperate Zone. Reaching a height of 1 to 1.5 meters, the perennial plant has dark green leaflets, yellow, blue, or violet flowers, and sweet-flavored rhizomes. The plant prefers deep sandy oil located in warm regions that have long photoperiods. Marketable-size rhizomes develop in three to five years.
Harvesting takes place in the autumn, after the foliage has dried.
Commercial licorice is available in many forms, including sticks, peeled or unpeeled, solid extract, and block juice. The powdered licorice root is employed as a natural sweetner in alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, confections, and pharmaceuticals. Licorice is often mixed with anise oil, which has a licorice-like scent, for use as candy or in flavoring of other candies, pastries or baked goods. As a medicinal plant, licorice has been considered a demulcent, diuretic, emollient, expectorant, laxative, pectoral, and stomachic. The bark of licorice plants contains a hemolytically active saponin.