Licorice

“ Glycyrrhiza is extensively cultivated in Greece, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, the Danubian Provinces, southern China, northern Africa, and to some extent in England. In the Italian province of Calabria licorice is planted with peas and corn. In the course of three years the roots are collected, the juice expressed and root evaporated to the proper consistency for shipping. New crops are grown from cuttings of the rhizomes. There is an excellent quality of licorice grown in the vicinity of Smyrna. The principal commercial varieties are grown in Spain, southern Russia, Turkey and Italy. ”

“ The extract of licorice is prepared by crushing the fresh roots or rhizomes, then boiling repeatedly in water, expressing and then condensing the sap in copper kettles until it is quite hard when cooled. In Calabria the condensed juice, while still warm and pliable, is rolled into sticks and stamped with the name of the locality where it was prepared. In those countries where the fresh roots cannot be obtained the dried roots are crushed and then treated as above. ”

“ As already indicated there are several species of Glycyrrhiza of which the roots and rhizomes are used like those of G. glabra, but, in addition to these there are a number of other plants designated as licorice. Indian licorice or the wild licorice of India (Abrus precatorius) , is a woody twining plant growing quite abundantly in India; it is sometimes substituted for true licorice. Prickly licorice (Glycyrrhiza echinata) resembles true licorice quite closely. The wild licorice of America (Glycyrrhiza lepidota) is found in the Northwest. ”

“ Mix and flavor as the others.
The coarser the grains of sugar, the more transparent the lozenges. The finer particles of sugar being mixed with it destroy their transparency. The solution of gum should be thicker in proportion as the sugar is coarse.
Refined Licorice.—Four pounds of the best Spanish juice, and two pounds of gum arabic. Dissolve the gum in warm water, as for Bath pipe. Strain and dissolve the gum in the solution of licorice. Place it over a gentle fire, in a broad pan, and let it boil gradually, stirring it continually (or it will burn) until it is reduced to a paste. ”

“ Green candy is the most dangerous. Buy none, use none; they are mostly very dangerous confections.
Licorice, Gum Drops, etc.
About the nastiest of all candies are the licorice and the chocolate conglomerations. Glue, molasses, brown sugar, plaster, and lampblack, are among their beauties, with, for the latter, just sufficient real chocolate to give them a possible flavor. Licorice is cheap enough and nasty enough, but the addition of refuse molasses, glue, and lampblack, which is no unusual matter, makes it still more repulsive. ”

“ Down in the kitchen Sweet-Tooth, chief of the candy cooks, was showing his tidy little band of helpers, each in [4] white apron and cap, how to make very-black licorice drops.
‘Now that March is here some Brownie is sure to catch a Spring cold,’ said Sweet-Tooth, [5] measuring and mixing with all his might, ‘and there is nothing better than licorice drops for a cold in the Spring.’
Out in front of the Palace stood Nimbletoes, sweeping off the steps with great strokes of his broom. ”

“ Thus, 183you see, we have traced this class of plants through all sizes, from the trefoil that covers the turf, to a large tree. I should not, however, forget two others, the licorice, and the tamarind. The licorice, with the sweet root of which you are well acquainted, grows in the warmer countries, especially Spain, but is cultivated in some parts of England, especially at Pomfret, in Yorkshire. The tamarind is a large spreading tree growing in the West Indies, and valued for its shade, as well as for the cooling acid pulp of its pods, which are preserved with sugar and sent over to us. ”

“ Cook batch the same as for lemon drops and after pouring on slab sprinkle over it 1⁄2 oz. menthol crystals and knead in. Where the crystals melt they become liquid so the batch must be manipulated carefully and quickly. Color batch red and run through rollers any desired shape.
LICORICE DROPS.
Cook batch the same as for lemon drops and after pouring on slab add a very little (say one-quarter teaspoonful) menthol crystals and two ounces powdered licorice. When kneading up add a few drops of oil of fennel and when almost cool run through rollers in any desired shape. ”

“ The old doctor rubbed his hands in thought. "That is a subject for speculation. Certain cyanide compounds might be powerful enough to do so under certain conditions. Any real dry powder would choke a person if he got a big dose of it. I heard of a boy who came near dying as the result of breathing in a quantity of extra dry licorice powder. But he was smothered and did not have cramps." ”

“ Hydrophobia, to Prevent.—Elecampane, one drachm; chalk, four drachms; Armenian bole, three drachms; alum, ten grains; oil of aniseseed, five drops.
Infant's Syrup.—The syrup is made thus: one pound best box raisins, half an ounce of aniseseed, two sticks licorice; split the raisins, pound the aniseseed, and cut the licorice fine; add to it three quarts of rain water, and boil down to two quarts. Feed three or four times a day, as much as the child will willingly drink. The raisins are to strengthen, the anise is to expel the wind, and the licorice as a physic. ”

“ Our English Licorice is now adaies of more familiar vse (as I said before) then the outlandish, and is wholly spent and vsed to helpe to digest and expectorate flegme out of the chest and lunges, and doth allay the sharpenesse or saltnesse thereof. It is good also for those are troubled with shortnesse of breath, and for all sorts of coughes. The iuice of Licorice artificially made with Hyssope water, serueth very well for all the purposes aforesaid. ”

“ Write: diet, gargles, strong licorice tea.”
In that vein he passed all the sick in review, prescribing for all, the syphilitics and the wounded, the fevered and the dysentery patients his strong licorice tea. He stopped in front of me, stared into my face, tore off my covering, punched my stomach with his fist, ordered albuminated water for me, the inevitable tea; and went out snorting and dragging his feet.
Life was difficult with the men who were about us. There were twenty-one in our sleeping quarters. At my left slept my friend, the painter ”

“ Five cent cherry wood bark ground and soaked in 1 pint of water over night. In the morning strain and add 5 cents rock candy 5 cent stick licorice chopped fine, and boil until thick like syrup. Dose—1 teaspoon every hour.—Mrs. H. England. ”

“ How Bill and Katy Kelly did eat and how they reveled! And little Willy Kaatenstein literally waded in gum-drops and long licorice pipes. They began the feast with pie; from pie they went at figs; from figs they transferred to the tough little animals; and from that to cookies; and from cookies to long licorice pipes. Then they stopped eating consecutively and went at the entire feast hap-hazard. ”

“ For older children or adults, compound licorice powder may be used. Laxative oils should be given between meals; nutritive oils shortly after meals.
Antiseptics. These hinder development of germs. For internal use and on eyes, normal salt solution (1 teaspoon salt to 1 pint water) , 2% boric solution (1 teaspoon to quart water) , listerine 50%. For external use, saturated boric solution (1 teaspoon to pint water) listerine, 70% alcohol, witch hazel. Peroxide is uncertain. Use tincture of green soap in warm water for washing infected tissues. Use boiled or distilled water in making solutions. ”

“ A genus of papilionaceous plants, of the tribe Galege‘, containing numerous species, two of which are called, in English, milk vetch and licorice vetch. Gum tragacanth is obtained from different oriental species, particularly the A. gummifer and A. verus. ”

“ This medicine should be taken by every mother. Use, also, occasionally, a drink made from a handfull of slippery elm, boiled in a quart of water.
Cough Powder.—Take elecampane, licorice root and seneca, half ounce of each; powder them fine and mix them with a pound of honey; Dose, a teaspoonful three times a day. Life root tea, or crosswort, princes pine, or life-everlasting, to be continued, is best. Life root, if given too freely, will debilitate so rapidly as to lay dormant all the functions of life; use it with caution where the patient is feeble. ”

“ In some places, particularly in Silesia and Moravia, pieces of licorice root are substituted for willow twigs; or again in the vine-growing districts of Bohemia vine-branches are used for the same purpose. Sometimes a scourge made of leather straps of various colours takes the place of a green bough. The blows are commonly inflicted on the hands and feet; and in some places, particularly in Bohemia, the victims are expected to reward their tormentors with a present of red Easter eggs; nay sometimes a woman is bound to give an egg for every blow she receives. ”

“ Officinally, the root and stolons (underground stems) of the Glycyrrhiza glabra (smooth) are variously employed; for making an extract, for mixing with linseed in a tea, for combination with powdered senna, sugar, and fennel, to form a favourite mild laxative medicine, known as "Compound Liquorice Powder," and for other uses. The solid juice is put into porter and stout, because giving sweetness, thickness, and blackness to those beverages, without making them fermentative; but Liquorice, like gum, supplies scant aliment to the body. ”

“ History—Inspissated liquorice juice was known in the time of Dioscorides, and may be traced in the writings of Oribasius and Marcellus Empiricus in the latter half of the 4th century, and in those of Paulus Ægineta in the 7th. It appears to have been in common use in Europe during the middle ages. In a.d. 1264, “Liquorice” is charged in the Wardrobe Accounts of Henry III.; [728] and as the article cost 3d. per lb., or the same price as grains of paradise and one-third that of cinnamon, we are warranted in supposing the extract and not the mere root is intended. ”

“ Liquorice administered in many ways was a great remedy against coughs. Boiled in faire water, with Maiden-haire and Figges, it made a “good ptisane drinke for them that have any dry cough,” and the “juice of Licoris, artificially made with Hyssoppe water,” was recommended against shortness of breath. Extract of Liquorice is to be found in the Pharmacopœia, and it is imported as “Spanish juice.” The extract must be made from the dried root, or else it will not be so bright when it is strained. Dr Fernie says that Liquorice is added to porter and stout to give thickness and blackness. ”

“ The fine powder of Liquorice blown through a quill into the eyes that have a pin and web (as they call it) or [107] rheumatic distillations in them, doth cleanse and help them. The juice of Liquorice is as effectual in all the diseases of the breast and lungs, the reins and bladder, as the decoction. The juice distilled in Rose-water, with some Gum Tragacanth, is a fine licking medicine for hoarseness, wheezing, &c.
LIVERWORT.
There are, according to some botanists, upwards of three hundred different kinds of Liverwort. ”

“ The stalks of the liquorice-plant are usually four or five feet high. The leaves are winged, and the leaflets egg-shaped, with an odd one at the extremity. The flowers grow in long spikes from the junction of the leaves and branches. The roots are long, round, tough, of brown colour externally, and yellow within.
The principal use of liquorice is in medicine. It contains much saccharine matter, joined with some portion of mucilage; and is one of the few sweet substances which tend to allay thirst. Liquorice is an excellent medicine in coughs and hoarsenesses. ”

“ Liquorice is almost the only sweet that quenches thirst.
This root is a very useful pectoral, and excellently softens acrimonious humours, at the same time that it proves gently detergent: and this account is warranted by experience. It is an ingredient in the pectoral syrup, pectoral troches, the compound lime waters, decoction of the woods, compound powder of gum tragacanth, lenitive electuary, and theriaca. An extract is directed to be made from it in the shops ”

“ Cultivation, and habit of growth—The liquorice plant is cultivated in England at Mitcham and in Yorkshire, but not on a very extensive scale. The plants, which require a good deep soil, well enriched by manure, are set in rows, attain a height of 4 to 5 feet and produce flowers but not seeds. The root is dug up at the beginning of winter, when the plant is at least 3 or 4 years old. ”

“ In the Russian root, the size of all the cells is much more considerable than in the Spanish.
Chemical Composition—The root of liquorice contains, in addition to sugar and albuminous matter, a peculiar sweet substance named Glycyrrhizin, which is precipitated from a strong decoction upon addition of an acid or solution of cream of tartar, or neutral or basic acetate of lead. When washed with dilute alcohol and dried, it is an amorphous yellow powder, having a strong bitter-sweet taste and an acid reaction. ”

“ The jelly which forms, upon cooling the filtered solution, is dark coloured, but, being dried and redissolved in hot water, it becomes clear and colourless. Lichenine consists of 39·33 carbon, 7·24 hydrogen, and 55·43 oxygen. With potash, lime, oxide of lead, and tincture of galls, the habitudes of lichenine and starch are the same. The mucilage of island moss is preferred in Germany to common paste for dressing the warp of webs in the loom, because it remains soft, from its hygrometric quality. It is also mixed with the pulp for sizing paper in the vat. ”