Licorice

Licorice is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra from which a somewhat sweet flavor can be extracted. The liquorice plant is a legume that is native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. It is not botanically related to anise, star anise, or fennel, which are sources of similar flavouring compounds.
==Uses==
===Tobacco===
Most liquorice is used as a flavoring agent for tobacco. For example, MacAndrews & Forbes reported in 2011 that approximately 63% of its liquorice product sales are to the worldwide tobacco industry for use as tobacco flavor enhancing and moistening agents in the manufacture of American blend cigarettes, moist snuff, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco. This percentage was higher in earlier years, when American blend cigarettes made up a larger portion of worldwide tobacco consumption. MacAndrews & Forbes sold approximately 73% of its liquorice products to the tobacco industry in 2005, and a consultant to MacAndrews & Forbes stated in 1975 that it was believed that well over 90% of the total production of liquorice extract and its derivatives found its way into tobacco products
Liquorice provides tobacco products with a natural sweetness and a distinctive flavor that blends readily with the natural and imitation flavoring components employed in the tobacco industry, represses harshness, and is not detectable as liquorice by the consumer. Tobacco flavorings such as liquorice also make it easier to inhale the smoke by creating bronchodilators, which open up the lungs. Chewing tobacco requires substantially higher levels of liquorice extract as emphasis on the sweet flavor appears highly desirable.
===Food and candy===
Liquorice flavour is found in a wide variety of liquorice candies or sweets. In most of these candies the taste is reinforced by aniseed oil, and the actual content of liquorice is very low. Liquorice confections are primarily purchased by consumers in the European Union.
Liquorice flavouring is also used in soft drinks, and in some herbal infusions where it provides a sweet aftertaste. The flavour is common in medicines to disguise unpleasant flavours.
===Medicine===
The compound glycyrrhizic acid, found in liquorice, is now routinely used throughout Japan for the treatment and control of chronic viral hepatitis, and there is a possible transaminase-lowering effect. Hepatoprotective mechanisms have been demonstrated in mice. Recent studies indicate that glycyrrhizic acid disrupts latent Kaposi's sarcoma (as also demonstrated with other herpesvirus infections in the active stage), exhibiting a strong anti-viral effect. The Chinese use liquorice to treat Tuberculosis.
Category:Spices
Category:Food
Category:Candy
Category:Plants
Category:Everyday Objects