Why does licorice numb your tongue

News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Follow NBC News. By Meghan Holohan. It manifested itself to me, as unlikely as this may sound, on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. I was touring a factory that made limoncello , the delightfully citrusy Italian liqueur, when my host offered to take me into another room.

In general, "being taken into another room" is never a good idea. As I entered, she proudly announced that the large metal vat in the center of the room contained the flavoring concentrate that they dilute by a factor of to make Sambuca , the horrifying Italian licorice liqueur.

I held my breath, pantomimed taking a whiff to oblige my host, and stepped outside to have a quiet moment in which to ascertain that I was indeed still alive.

Like all qualities that I find intrinsic to my being, I can't remember my first memory of hating all things black licorice, fennel, and anise. All I know is that the lingering, cloying, sickly sweetness has always been my own personal definition of a nightmare. Liquorice, or liquorice, is a uniquely tasting herb derived from Glycyrrhiza glabra , and has been used in medicine for thousands of years.

Liquorice is used as a flavorant in a variety of edibles, medicine, and tobacco, and is often innocently consumed in vast amounts without any regard or only with vague concepts of side effects liquorice may produce.

Important clinical management principles for moderating liquorice consumption are suggested. It is the roots rhizomes and stolons of Glycyrrhiza glabra a. Glycyrrhiza uralensis a. Manchurian liquorice is the species favoured for traditional Chinese Eastern Medicines. Liquorice flavours are also found in the plants like Fennel Foeniculum vulgare , Anise seeds from Pimpinella anisum , and other plants [ 1 ]. The active chemical ingredients imparting the unique liquorice taste are glycyrrhizic acid and its glucoside, glycyrrhizin C 42 H 62 O These molecules are regarded as nearly synonymous, are powerful organoleptic flavorants, and impart characteristic liquorice taste and aroma to mixtures in small concentrations [ 2 ].

Glycyrrhizin is 50 times sweeter than sucrose. It retains, when sapid, a singular liquorice flavour. The liquorice sweetness has a slower onset than sugar and lingers. Unlike artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and cyclamates, it contains no sulfur molecule [ 3 ], and retains its sweetness when heated [ 2 ].

On hydrolysis glycyrrhizin yields 2 mols of glucuronic acid and 1 of glycyrrhetenic acid, a pentacyclic, tri-terpene which structure partially resembles that common to steroids, with a moiety attached.

Glycyrrhizin inhibits the conversion of the precursor cortisol to cortisone by inhibiting the enzyme betahydroxysteroid dehydrogenase [ 4 ]. Hydrolysis of slowly absorbing glycyrrhizin into the more rapidly absorbed glycyrrhetenic acid is performed by intestinal microbiota.

Consequently antibiotics affecting gut flora, adversely affects absorption of liquorice. Liquorice boosts cellular formation of endogenous interferon, and has a positive long-term healing effect on Hepatitis-C-infected patients [ 5 — 9 ]. Liquorice is marketed in various forms, and because its often sold as the natural grown product, concentrations in the plant varies. Solid extract — mg, three times daily, is suggested for medicinal purposes.

Dried root is dispensed at 1—4 g, three times daily to a maximum of 12 g [ 2 ]. More than this, daily dose increases blood pressure proportional to increased liquorice intake [ 2 , 4 ]. This on its own is rare, yet not infrequent when encountered clinically and usually occurs in diuretic medicated patients unwittingly combining consumption of commercial products containing high amounts of liquorice extract like chewing tobacco, laxatives, or confections with concentrated liquorice extracts [ 9 — 11 ].

Consumption of glycyrrhizin is considered safe at mg per day, a dose accepted as recommendation to Japanese. The accepted daily intake ADI for glycyrrhizin at 0. Commercially liquorice flavoured sweets rarely have any serious medicinal side effects, especially if consumed irregularly, in moderate amounts, of less than 25 g of liquorice per day.

Liquorice has many positive and negative health modulating physiological effects which explain a variety of its medical effects. The most widely renowned negative action derives from liquorice's association with hypertension.

Because of the inhibition of beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase , by liquorice, cortisol levels are high within the collecting duct of the kidney, and potassium is excreted while sodium is retained [ 4 ]. Cortisol has high mineralo-corticoid properties, that is, it acts like aldosterone and increases sodium re-absorption from the glomerular filtration in the proximal tubules of the kidney in ENaC channels [ 3 , 4 ].

Sodium retention leads to higher osmotic intravascular pressure, which in turn retains more water, which increases circulating blood volume with consequent increased blood pressure leading to hypertension [ 4 , 15 ]. Liquorice has a variety of positive healthy effects on the body. For example, it is known that Liquorice has antiviral properties and has some inhibitory effects on HIV, encephalitis, and SARS-corona viruses [ 11 , 16 , 17 ].

Also Glycyrrhetenic acid itself has a retardant effect on peptic ulcers, possibly due to the fact that it has antibacterial properties and retards the growth of Helicobacter pylori [ 18 ]. Other medicinal claims are that liquorice is anti-ulcer peptic, duodenal, and aspirin [ 19 , 20 ]. Liquorice-induced hypokalemic myopathy may explain why GIT spasms relax, and also why liquorice containing alcohols are said not to induce emesis [ 21 ]. With gastric smooth muscle paralysis, the irritating effect of ethanol is reduced and gastric contraction is temporarily weakened.

Liquorice among others is claimed to also be anti-inflammatory, an immune-stimulant, a demulcent, an expectorant, anticatarrhal, hepato-protective, a GIT spasmolytic, a mild laxative, and an antioxidant [ 20 — 24 ]. Liquorice used as a flavorant in candies adds much gustatory joy to the variety of living pleasures.

The flavour is so positive and pleasant, it is also used for flavouring other foods like ice-cream, biscuits, cakes, and drinks. Liquorice is added to baked confectionery, toffees, chocolates, chewing-gum, and sucking sweets. Black and Red Liquorice varieties are made using food dyes which can discolour the tongue.

Figure 3. Liquorice is also part of spice mixes constituting curry, and liquorice is also used in breath fresheners. Ubiquitous Liquorice all sorts. A mainly carbohydrate and liquorice confection by Maynards-Bassetts. Cadbury Adams, Toronto Ont. These sweets are marketed freely to the public. Short lived staining of the tongue after sucking black Liquorice confection. This stain is water soluble and usually disappears after a few hours.

It is also used in medications, in many syrups, lozenges, capsules, laxatives, cough-lozenges, and mixtures to mask bitterness and foul-flavours of other drugs.

Liquorice is included in commercial over-the-counter tobacco products like pipe and chewing tobacco and snuffs. Heavy tobacco dental staining from pipe smoking with Liquorice as an additive. Gingival recession, alveolar bone loss, and periodontal pockets result from the deleterious effect of the tobacco smoke. Ground Tobacco Wedge, flavored with Liquorice, is habitually placed into the labial Fornix adjacent to the lower incisors.

This imparts a sense of euphoria deriving from the nicotine content of the tobacco, not the liquorice , to its users. After removal of the Tobacco Wedge seen in Figure 5. In this Wikipedia article, there's nothing about analgesic affects; however licorice is often an ingredient in soothing teas like ThroatCoat and things of that nature. I thought sambuca was made with anise, not licorice. A lot of licorice candies probably have very little licorice in them. I've chewed real licorice roots on and off all my life, have never had any numbness from them.

And I've drunk my fair share of anisette and sambuca without numbness. I wonder if it's something that people react to differently based on PH of saliva or some other factor posted by mareli at PM on November 7, It seems you're not alone in your experience. This happens to me when I eat too much Good-n-Plenty or drink licorice tea.