Licorice Root and the Stomach: What the Sweet Herb Actually Does to Your Gut Lining

A root sweeter than sugar has been chewed for gut troubles since antiquity — modern labs are finally asking why it might work, and what it could be doing to a chicken's stomach along the way.

Ancient Arabic physicians reached for it. Medieval European folk healers boiled it into syrups. Long before anyone knew what a triterpenoid saponin was, people were chewing on a wrinkled brown root for stomach trouble and calling it good medicine. That root is licorice — Glycyrrhiza glabra — and the compound that made it famous, glycyrrhizin, is still being studied for exactly the reason our ancestors valued it: what it does to the gut¹.

Licorice's reputation isn't just folklore dressed up in Latin names. It's a real plant with real, well-mapped chemistry, and researchers are still working out how its pieces fit together to protect — or occasionally irritate — the stomach lining.

What's Actually in the Root

The sweet taste of licorice root doesn't come from sugar. It comes from glycyrrhizin, a compound roughly 50 times sweeter than table sugar, which explains why it ended up in candy, tobacco flavoring, and traditional syrups long before anyone cared about its medicinal effects¹. Chemically, glycyrrhizin is a saponin — a soap-like molecule — built from a core called 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid attached to two sugar units. Your body breaks it down during digestion, releasing that glycyrrhetinic acid core as the active form that actually circulates and does the work¹.

But glycyrrhizin isn't the only interesting thing in the root. Licorice also contains a mix of flavonoids — plant pigments with biological punch — including quercetin, liquiritin, glabridin, and isoliquiritigenin². Quercetin in particular has been described as having anti-ulcer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, which means when you take licorice, you're not getting one active ingredient — you're getting a small chemical committee². licorice root

The Gut-Protection Angle

The traditional use of licorice for gastric ulcer disease is well documented, and researchers reviewing glycyrrhetinic acid and its derivatives have specifically flagged this as one of the compound's long-standing applications alongside upper respiratory tract remedies¹. This isn't a new claim invented by a supplement marketer — it's a use pattern that predates modern pharmacology by centuries.

What's newer is evidence trying to explain the mechanism. A 2025 study looked at glycyrrhizin's effect on the glandular stomach tissue of chickens exposed to zearalenone, a mycotoxin (a toxic compound produced by mold) that commonly contaminates animal feed³. The researchers found that glycyrrhizin acid reduced the stomach and gland damage caused by this toxin, lowered markers of oxidative stress in the body, and cut down on two forms of cell death — apoptosis (programmed cell suicide) and a related process called programmed necrosis³.

The proposed mechanism is worth unpacking because it's genuinely specific. The study suggests glycyrrhizin may work by inhibiting inflammation-driven cell death that runs through something called the NFκB pathway — think of NFκB as a master switch inside cells that, when flipped on by stress or toxins, ramps up inflammation and can push damaged cells toward dying off³. By damping that switch down, glycyrrhizin appeared to help preserve the structure of the glandular stomach tissue even while it was under chemical attack³.

It's important to be honest about what this study actually shows. It was conducted in chickens, not people, and it tested protection against a specific mold toxin — not against the more familiar human causes of gastric ulcers, like bacterial infection or long-term use of pain relievers. Still, it's a useful piece of the puzzle: it gives a plausible biological reason why a compound folk medicine associated with gut healing might actually calm inflammation and reduce cell damage at the tissue level³.

Beyond the Stomach: The Bigger Chemical Picture

Glycyrrhetinic acid's story doesn't stop at the gut. Reviews of the compound describe activity against infectious diseases more broadly, which is part of why licorice has historically been paired with respiratory remedies as well as digestive ones¹. The same root that soothed sore stomachs was also brewed for sore throats and coughs — a dual reputation that makes more sense once you realize the active compounds have effects that reach beyond one organ system.

The flavonoid side of licorice has drawn separate scientific interest, particularly around a virus called Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which can persist in the body long-term and has been linked to certain gastric cancers. A study using mouse models implanted with human gastric carcinoma cells — some infected with EBV, some not — tested quercetin and isoliquiritigenin, two flavonoids found in licorice, for anticancer activity². This research is a reminder that "licorice" isn't a single molecule — it's a basket of compounds, and scientists are pulling them apart one at a time to see what each one contributes. It's worth being clear here: this line of research is about isolated flavonoids from the plant tested in lab and animal cancer models, not a claim that eating licorice treats gastric cancer in people.

Traditional Use, Modern Caution

Licorice's traditional footprint runs deep. It was part of Arabic medicine, adopted into European folk practice starting in the Middle Ages, and has been continuously used ever since as a remedy for gastric ulcer disease and upper respiratory complaints, in addition to its role as a flavoring agent in food, tobacco, and pharmaceutical products¹. That's an unusually long and consistent track record for a single plant, spanning cultures that had no contact with each other's medical texts. licorice extract

But a long history of use is not the same as a blank check for safety, and this is where the research brief is explicit: licorice root, and specifically the glycyrrhizin it contains, comes with real interaction risks that deserve a dedicated look before anyone reaches for it as a daily supplement.

Practical Takeaway

If you're drawn to licorice root for stomach support because of its long traditional use, there are a few things worth knowing. First, the active compound is glycyrrhizin, which your body converts to glycyrrhetinic acid — the form that does the biological work¹. Second, most of the direct evidence on stomach tissue protection so far comes from an animal model exposed to a specific mycotoxin, not from large human ulcer trials, so treat it as a promising mechanistic clue rather than a settled human treatment³.

Licorice root supplement safety data flags known interactions that matter, especially for anyone already on medication or managing a chronic condition. Because of this, talk to your doctor before adding licorice root or concentrated glycyrrhizin extracts to your routine — this is especially important if you take blood pressure medication, diuretics, or have any heart or kidney condition, since licorice's known interaction profile makes self-directed high-dose use a genuinely bad idea. deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL)&tag=holisticcodex-20)

If you do use licorice-based products, whole-root teas or lozenges licorice tea used occasionally are a very different proposition than concentrated glycyrrhizin extracts taken daily for weeks. Some people specifically look for deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), which has had the glycyrrhizin component removed — a choice that sidesteps some of the interaction concerns while still offering the plant's other compounds, like the flavonoids quercetin and isoliquiritigenin studied for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties². Given how many active compounds are packed into one root, licorice is a good example of why "natural" and "risk-free" are not the same word — respect it the way you'd respect any substance with a genuine pharmacological effect.

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