Does licorice affect digestive health?

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    Last Updated: April 23, 2025

    Licorice is known to heal ulcerations in the digestive tract and may reduce symptoms of functional dyspepsia and ulcerative colitis. Additionally, it contains compounds that can relax intestinal muscles, which can potentially alleviate cramping; however, evidence on its effects on body fat and liver function remains inconclusive.

    Licorice is known for its ability to heal ulcerations along the digestive tract. For example, applying licorice to oral ulcers over the course of a week resulted in smaller ulcers than no treatment at all.[1] Further clinical evidence from review studies suggested that licorice may be an effective treatment for reducing the pain, size, and healing time of oral canker sores.[2][3]

    Licorice appears to be effective for reducing the symptoms of functional dyspepsia (indigestion) and ulcerative colitis.[4][5] Several compounds in licorice are thought to relax the intestinal muscles, which may provide relief from intestinal cramping.[6][7][8][9]

    Licorice components (liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin) reduced the size of fat cells in fatty liver in mice through a variety of mechanisms, which hints at therapeutic possibilities, but human studies will be needed before this can be confirmed.[10][11][12][13][14][15] When combined with standard treatments, licorice might improve the liver function of children with acute hepatitis, but the evidence for this approach is rated as low or very low certainty.[4]

    There is limited evidence for licorice to reduce body fat, though glycyrretinic acid (topical application of 2.5% cream for one month) shows the most promise for fat reduction without weight change.[16][17] Individuals without overweight/obesity who took 3.5 grams of licorice per day orally for two months reported body fat reductions which were not attributable to the loss of retained water.[18] However, another study where the participants used licorice for four weeks (100 grams of licorice; 150 mg of glycyrrhetic acid) actually saw an increase in body mass index that was attributed to water weight, so the results are still conflicting.[19]

    Does licorice affect digestive health? - Examine