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History
First appeared in Divine Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica, clasified as upper class.
Traditional Usage
A sweet tasting and smelling herb commonly known in English as liquorice root, gancao is able to enter all of the meridians, especially the stomach, spleen, lung and heart, making it one of the most useful substances in Chinese medicine. Its uses are to tonify the spleen and augment the chi. It also moderates and harmonises the characteristics of other herbs, moistens the lungs, relieves pain, clears heat and treats poisoning. Gancao is used to treat zang zao disorder, in which the patient typically suffers from emotional instability with a wan appearance and disturbed sleep caused by a combination of heart deficiency and liver stagnation.
Modern Research
Its active ingredient, glycyrrhizin, can help regulate gastric functions and has a marked detoxifying effect in treating poisoning by certain drugs, foods, and substances such as enterotoxin, herbicides and pesticides. It is also an analgesic and anti-inflammatory.