Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

Licorice has been wed in clinical medicine for thousands of years. However it is only in recent times that we have been able to employ scientific methods to prove its efficacy and to give us a better understanding of its mechanism of action. One of important mechanisms for its efficacy is related to...

Licorice has been wed in clinical medicine for thousands of years. However it is only in recent times that we have been able to employ scientific methods to prove its efficacy and to give us a better understanding of its mechanism of action. One of important mechanisms for its efficacy is related to mineralocorticoid activity increased by glycyrrhizic acid, the active ingredient in licorice. Also the main undesirable side-effects of Licorice relate to is mineralocorticoid activity resulting in a state of apparent mineralocorticoid excess (AME). These therapeutic and undesirable effects are explained by the inhibition of 11-$\beta$-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11-$\beta$-HSD) activity. Recently, the reduction of serum testosterone in men by licorice was reported which would have important health implications in the context of fertility and sexual dysfunction. Here, health implication of licorice were reviewed In term of its pharmacodynamic and toxicodynamic mechanism.

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