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Materia medica
Published in Michael Stolberg, Gabrielle Falloppia, 1522/23–1562, 2023
The effects of composite medicines were more than just the sum of those of the individual ingredients. Substances like licorice could be added in order to help the other medicines penetrate to the desired location in the body. Some substances helped correct the bad taste, of cassia or rhubarb, for example, or intensified or weakened the effect of a medicine. Honey, sugar, or vinegar protected the medicines against putrefaction. With medicines that had powerful effects in tiny qualities already, making them more voluminous by means of other substances facilitated the oral application, etc.
Liquorice and Chinese herbal medicine
Published in Vivienne Lo, Michael Stanley-Baker, Dolly Yang, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine, 2022
The ingestion of liquorice is not without its dangers. There is strong evidence that excessive intake leads to hypertension (van Uum 2005; Penninkilamp, Eslick and Eslick 2017). This effect is known by modern practitioners, who take nosebleeds as an indicative side-effect, and when they occur, will discontinue liquorice. Although the effect is so small that it is not a matter of significance for normal people, those with underlying cardiovascular conditions should take note. Rather more serious for pregnant women is the effect of taking excessive amounts of liquorice on the unborn child. In a carefully executed Scottish-Finnish study (Räikkönen, Pesonen, Heinonen et al. 2009) it was found that, because of the similarity of structure between cortisol and glycyrrhizin, mothers who consumed more than 500mg of glycyrrhizin per week gave birth to children with depressed verbal skills, as measured by the Beery Development Test. Although this work should not deter the occasional consumption of a liquorice sweet, pregnant women should be aware of the dangers of an excess.
Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice) and Gymnema sylvestre (Gurmar)
Published in Azamal Husen, Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees of Potential Medicinal Benefits, 2022
Jasbir Kaur, Sana Nafees, Mohd Anwar, Jamal Akhtar, Nighat Anjum
The drug licorice has been used in traditional systems of medicine for various diseases like bronchial asthma, sore throat, tonsillitis, cough, fever, flatulence, hyperdipsia, epilepsy, paralysis, sexual debility, gastric ulcers, colic, rheumatism, skin diseases, jaundice, leucorrhoea, bleeding, and hemorrhagic conditions (Khare, 2004; Damle, 2014; Kaur and Dhinds, 2013). Moreover, it is also used as an anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory, laxative, antibacterial, antiviral, insecticidal, and memory enhancer because it inhibits the monoamine oxidase (MOA). It also has several other actions like anti-cholinergic, antioxidant, anticancer, antimycotic, antidiuretic, hypolipidemic, prevents dental caries, and acts as an estrogenic agent (Zadeh et al., 2013). Furthermore, this is used in industries like tobacco manufacturing and sweets, such as soft drinks and alcohol. This drug is widely used in traditional systems of medicines, including Unani and Ayurvedic systems of medicines. Its traditional actions and uses are described in Table 7.1.
Transcriptional profile changes after treatment of ischemia reperfusion injury-induced kidney fibrosis with 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid
Published in Renal Failure, 2022
Yamei Jiang, Chengzhe Cai, Pingbao Zhang, Yongsheng Luo, Jingjing Guo, Jiawei Li, Ruiming Rong, Yi Zhang, Tongyu Zhu
Licorice is the most widely used herbal medicine in the world, and is grown in China, Japan, and Russia [9]. 18β-Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) is the most well-known active metabolite of licorice, which has multiple functions; it not only has detoxification properties [10], but also possesses antioxidant and anti-inflammatory [11,12], immunoregulatory [13,14], and liver-protective [15–17] functions. Previous studies have reported that GA plays a role in kidney disease. The study by Abd El-Twab et al. [18] showed that GA reduced methotrexate-induced nephrotoxicity by upregulating the mRNA of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and hemoxygenase 1 (HO-1) in the kidney, which is related to attenuating oxidative stress and inflammation. Ma et al. [19] established a cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) mouse model and demonstrated that GA inhibited renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis by targeting histone deacetylases 2 (HDAC2) and enhancing the level of bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) epigenetically. Furthermore, GA is also a very promising anti-fibrotic treatment for patients with chronic liver disease. Wang et al. demonstrated that GA downregulated the mRNA expression of type I and III pre-collagen and reduced the deposition of collagen in fibrotic rat liver [20]. However, no study has investigated the role of GA in ameliorating kidney fibrosis in vivo. Hence, the present study aimed to uncover the potential protective effect of GA in kidney fibrosis and explore its underlying mechanisms.
Evaluating the protective role of Deglycyrrhizinated licorice root supplement on bleomycin induced pulmonary oxidative damage
Published in Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, 2022
Heba N. Gad El-Hak, Osman E. Mohamed, Zohour I. Nabil
Before starting treatment, the body weight was recorded for all the animals. Sixty animals were divided into six groups, each of 10 rats as follows: Control group: rats were intraperitoneally (IP) injected with saline. Bleomycin group (B): rats were IP injected with bleomycin 5 mg/kg twice weekly according to Arslan et al. (2002). Licorice group (L): rats received orally 300 mg/kg licorice extract. Bleomycin and a low dose of Licorice group (BLLG): rats received orally 75 mg/kg licorice daily and IP injected with bleomycin 5 mg/kg twice weekly. Bleomycin and a middle dose of Licorice group (BMLG): rats received orally 150 mg/kg licorice daily and IP injected with Bleomycin 5 mg/kg twice weekly. Bleomycin and a high dose of Licorice group (BHLG): rats received orally 300 mg/kg licorice daily and IP injected with Bleomycin 5 mg/kg twice weekly. All groups were treated for four weeks. The selected dose of licorice according to (Dhingra et al. 2004; Aly et al. 2005; Huo et al. 2011).
Presleep physiological stress is associated with a higher cortical arousal in sleep and more consolidated REM sleep
Published in Stress, 2021
Anu-Katriina Pesonen, Tommi Makkonen, Marko Elovainio, Risto Halonen, Katri Räikkönen, Liisa Kuula
The participants were from an urban community-based cohort composed of 1049 healthy adolescent singletons (Strandberg et al., 2001), all of Finnish origin. The consecutive sample was born between March and November 1998 in Helsinki, Finland. We invited the participants from the cohort as their 17th birthday approached, resulting in a very narrow age range (M = 16.9, SD = 0.1; range 16.6–17.2 years). We invited adolescents who had participated in the previous follow-up at the age of 12 years (Kuula et al., 2018; Pesonen et al., 2014), and who lived within a 30 km radius of Helsinki and had given consent for further contact (N = 278). In total, 196 adolescents participated (71% of the invited, 74% of those contacted by phone, 61% girls), of which 154 had valid sleep EEG, and cortisol data available (55% girls), with a mean age of 16.9 years (SD = 0.1). Due to original research interests, the flow of participation since the 8-year follow-up (Räikkönen et al., 2009, 2017) was weighted on those whose mothers reported higher licorice consumption during pregnancy. The analytic sample in this study did not differ significantly from the rest of the participants in the initial cohort regarding mother’s age or body mass index (BMI) at birth, gestational age, birth weight, length at birth, or maternal alcohol or licorice consumption during pregnancy in T-tests (all p>.5). The Ethics Committee of the Children's Hospital in Helsinki University Central Hospital approved the study protocol (177/13/03/03/2014). Informed written consent was obtained from the participants.