Glycyrrhizin
Also written glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhizinic acid, glycyrrhizin (saponin)
Quick answer
The sweet compound of liquorice root — many times sweeter than sugar, chemically unrelated to anise despite tasting of it, and the one compound here whose everyday consumption carries a documented physiological effect.
What it does
Glycyrrhizin is a saponin, not a sugar, and it is very much sweeter than sucrose by weight with a slow onset and a long, lingering finish quite unlike sugar’s. It is the actual sweetness of liquorice root. What it is not is the anise flavour that people associate with liquorice confectionery — that comes from anethole, which is added, and a great deal of what is sold as liquorice sweets contains anise flavouring and no liquorice root whatsoever. Glycyrrhizin also has a mild bitterness and a characteristic dryness behind the sweetness.
How it behaves when cooked
Four properties of the molecule, and what they mean at the stove.
- Volatility
- low
- Fat solubility
- low
- Water solubility
- high
- Heat stability
- high
Glycyrrhizin is water-soluble and heat-stable, so liquorice root gives up its sweetness readily to a simmered or steeped liquid and holds it through long cooking — which is why the root is used in stocks, braises and master stocks across Chinese cooking and in infusions elsewhere, and why it is added as a whole slice and removed rather than ground. Its poor fat solubility means blooming it in oil achieves nothing. Because the sweetness is potent and lingering, it is dosed by the slice rather than by the spoon, and it interferes noticeably with the balance of a dish that is already sweet.
Spices that carry it
Recorded on the compound rather than on each spice, so the two cannot disagree.
- Liquorice rootPrincipal component
Not to be confused with
Compounds a reader is likely to take for this one, and why they differ.
Anethole
Liquorice and anise taste alike and share no chemistry. Anethole is the anise compound and is what most liquorice-flavoured confectionery actually contains; glycyrrhizin is the root’s own sweetness and is present in far less of what is labelled liquorice than readers assume.
Safety
What the concern is. The dose, the population and the evidence level live on the spice profiles, which is where a reader with that question actually arrives.
Glycyrrhizin is the rare culinary compound with a documented dose-related effect at quantities people genuinely reach: sustained high intake of liquorice root or liquorice confectionery can raise blood pressure and lower potassium, and cases are reported regularly enough that several food authorities have issued consumer advice. It matters chiefly to people eating liquorice sweets habitually or taking liquorice preparations, and it interacts with the reasons some medications are prescribed. This is a compound-level note; the liquorice-root profile carries the caution against a competent source, and neither states a threshold.
Questions this page answers
- what is glycyrrhizin
- what does glycyrrhizin do
- what is glycyrrhizic acid
- what is glycyrrhizinic acid