What Does Licorice Have To Do with Protecting Against & Even Treating... Cancer?
Wow. A new use for the natural compound DGL!
Licorice is more than a candy people either love or hate, it looks like one of its cool plant compounds is helpful in preventing or treating certain types of cancer.
This same plant compound, btw, is also used to help heal gut issues, from reflux to leaky gut. So this is a politically multi-helpful compound from nature. It is called Glycyrrhiza glabra.
I have been using this on patients for gut issues for years. It is very “anti-inflammatory” on gastric and colonic tissues.
But this very fact makes it also helpful for cancer protection.
Glycyrrhizin and its derivative glycyrrhetinic acid have great potential as both anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agents, report University of Illinois Chicago researchers.
But licorice can raise blood pressure. So it’s not for everyone. It can be purchased with the blood pressure raising plant compounds removed and it still seems to be a powerful anti-inflammatory tool.
It is the glycyrrhizinic acid in licorice that is the blood pressure raising and potassium lowering compound.
Some licorice extracts do not contain glycyrrhizin. These extracts have had this compound removed so they are referred to as deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL).
The DGL has lots of research showing it still is very powerful as an anti-inflammatory agent. Is it also an anti-cancer agent? Hmmmm. Not sure yet but makes sense.
Licorice root is one of the oldest and most frequently employed botanicals in Chinese medicine.
Constituents of licorice include triterpenoids, such as glycyrrhizin and its aglycone glycyrrhizic acid, various polyphenols, and polysaccharides.
A number of pharmaceutical effects of licorice are known or suspected (anti-inflammatory, antivirus, antiulcer, anticarcinogenesis, and others).
Licorice and its derivatives may protect against carcinogen-induced DNA damage.
Damage of DNA is an initiating factor in the beginning of cancerous events.
Glycyrrhizic acid is an inhibitor of lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase, inhibits protein kinase C, and downregulates the epidermal growth factor receptor.
Licorice polyphenols induce apoptosis in cancer cells. This is a good thing as part of the danger of cancer is its “immortality” phenonmena.
References:
Licorice and cancer. Nutr Cancer. 2001;39(1):1-11. doi: 10.1207/S15327914nc391_1. PMID: 11588889.
Oncopreventive and oncotherapeutic potential of licorice triterpenoid compound glycyrrhizin and its derivatives: Molecular insights. Pharmacological Research, 2022; 178: 106138