Korea - researchers discover new uses for licorice

ARIRANG NEWS

Published on Nov 27, 2016

'약방에 감초', 다이어트-운동능력 향상에 효과
Licorice is such an essential ingredient for making traditional Korean medicines to treat everything from inflammation and gastritis to strengthening immunity... that it's even used in popular proverbs.
And now researchers have found another use for the plant 

Kim Mok-yeon shares with us their discovery. 

In the past, licorice was mainly used as a detoxifying agent that can remove toxic substances from other plants.

Nowadays, the plant is being used more effectively in the medical industry as well as the cosmetics industry.
But recently, Korean researchers found another trait of the herb.

Researchers from the Korea Food Research Institute held an experiment on two groups of rats.

They fed all the rats with high-fat foods, and afterwards, fed only one group with licorice extract.
The results showed that the rats that were fed with licorice extract lost a significant amount of weight and that the amount of neutral fats and visceral fat also decreased. 

They also found out that licorice was effective in improving the rats' ability to exercise longer.


"Since licorice is effective in both controlling weight gain and improving physical endurance, I think it could soon be developed into a functional health product."

Researchers plan to hold follow-up experiments on the human body and seek ways to make use of the plant as a means to cure obesity.

Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.