This vital herb can kill lethal viruses including SARS! | Lancula

Licorice has been used as a medicine for centuries, from the Indian, Chinese, Greek and Egyptian traditions.  It is a legume and is sweet because of the compound ‘glycyrrhizin’, which is 30-50 times sweeter than sugar, and is a powerful antiviral.  In fact there was a study done on the effects of glycyrrhizin’s inhibitory activity against SARS-associated coronovirus (in Lancet June 2003), showing its vital importance for human health.  The recent outbreak of SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003 was from the same coronoviruses used in this study, however instead of looking at natural alternatives, like licorice from this study they piled up on ineffective pharmaceuticals like Ribavirin, it’s amazing what the media can do!!

This study states “We assessed the antiviral potential of ribavirin, 6-azauridine, pyrazofurin, mycophenolic acid, and glycyrrhizin against two clinical isolates of coronavirus (FFM-1 and FFM-2) from patients with SARS admitted to the clinical centre in Frankfurt University, Germany.  Of all the compounds, glycyrrhizin was the most active in inhibiting replication of the SARS-associated virus. Our findings suggest that glycyrrhizin should be assessed for treatment of SARS”.

Licorice has also been studied with other epidemic/pandemic viruses, such as influenza.  In an animal study in 1997 researchers found that “Glycyrrhizin, an active component of licorice roots, reduces morbidity and mortality of mice infected with lethal doses of influenza virus”, in this study researchers found that when they injected the mice with glycyrrhizin 10mg/kg body weight, for an average adult that equates to 680mg, they all survived a series of 10 50% lethal injections of the virus.  Whereas the control group that didn’t receive the licorice only survived 10.5 days with no survivors by day 21, at the end of the experiment.  What was also interesting, the researchers took the splenic T cells (immune system fighter cells) from the glycyrrhizin-treated mice and transferred it to the control group mice that were exposed to the lethal injections, 100% survived compared to 0% of the untreated mice with glycyrrhizin.

The effects of this compound are in its ability to increase interferon gamma production by T cells.  However, licorice is still considered a “dangerous herb” because it can stimulate blood pressure when taken in high doses, although other drugs on the market have a higher toxicity than licorice does.  Therefore it is important to consult a professional when taking any herbal medicine.  Glycyrrhizin is classed as a safe agent when used as a flavoring agent, but not as a sweetener, it has also been removed from the “licorice” sweeties and replaced with anise. 

In the European union it is recommended that people take no more than 100mg per day and in Japan it is limited to 200mg a day.  This puts the therapeutic dose of 600mg into perspective.  Although the toxicity of glycyrrhizin is lower than the toxicity of antiviral drugs Ribavirin.  The Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) show that extracted glycyrrhizin is 30 times less toxic than the drug Ribavirin.    When glycyrrhizin is complexed in the whole root or powdered root form, it will be treated differently by the body and will be released slower which would attenuate adverse effects and therefore safer.  Glycyrrhizin is also much cheaper, so let’s look at the facts, not only is Glycyrrhizin in licorice form cheaper, 30% less toxic and it’s that one that actually saved lives in the research when compared to ribavirin, I know which one I would choose when faced in a life threatening situation like SARS.The biggest problem with the FDA getting licorice approved is that it will cost at least 800 million dollars for the preclinical and human clinical studies.

Other research has found the following benefits to licorice:

• Reverses duodenal ulceration (digestive system ulcers)
• Inhibits adhesion of helicobacter pylori (a bacteria in the stomach that causes indigestion)
• Helps with chronic hepatitis C (liver virus)
• Has antioxidant effects – helps with cardiac and renal (kidney) damage
• Reduces inflammation of spinal cord injuries
• Has anti-tumor activity
• Protects against lethal influenza virus (flu)
• Helps prostate cancer
• Prevents diabetes, obesity and hypertension
• Reduces pulmonary inflammation
• Reduces body fat and modulates blood sugar
• Helps liver damage by regenerating liver cells
• Active with metal chelation, free radical scavengers and antioxidant effects
• Inhibits HIV replication (helps HIV)
• Reduces pain and lesion size of recurrent aphthous ulcers (mouth ulcers)

As you can see the benefits of licorice are vast, you can eat licorice or get a licorice tincture, you can get that here.

Lancula are specialists in providing vitamins for hair for more information go to our website www.lancula.com.

References:

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