Licorice Extract

#### Licorice. Although without interest for perfumery, this product is one of the most important of the non-fruity flavor materials from nature. One of the more practical reasons as to why licorice finds no use in perfumery is the physical reason that all licorice preparations are water-soluble; they are not alcohol- or oil-soluble. **Licorice **or, more correctly, **Licorice Extract **is produced from the rhizomes and roots of **Glycyrrhiza**** ****Glabra,**** ****a**** **leguminous plant. There are two main varieties of this plant: the **Typica**** **which is known commercially as **"Spanish licorice**", and the **Glandulifera **which is generally called "Russian licorice". The former comes from Spain and Italy, the latter from Turkey, U.S.S.R. and the countries around Asia Minor towards India. By extraction of the comminuted rhizomes and roots with boiling water, followed by evaporation of the aqueous extract, the well-known solid **Licorice**** ****Extract**** **is prepared. It is usually marketed in cylindrical bars (6 inches by ¾ inch.) from Italy (Calabria), or in large, crude blocks of about 10 kilos (from Turkey). **Licorice**** ****Extract**** **is black and brittle, and has a sweet, mild odor somewhat different from that of the botanical starting material (the aqueous extract is often evaporated over an open fire and some caramellization of the extract may occur). Licorice extract has a very sweet taste, and a rich, "rootlike", slightly spicy-caramellic body of flavor. It leaves a faintly scratching feeling in the back of the mouth, and it is used in medicine for its mildly expectorant effect. The sweetness of Licorice is due to an acid, **Glycyrrhizin**, which is about 50 times as sweet as saccharose (household sugar). Glycyrrhizin is present in the root combined to ammonia. Unfortunately, the commercially available qualities of glycyrrhizin will color any aqueous solution in which they are used, strongly brown. Except for this drawback, **Glycyrrhizin**** **could be an interesting sweetener of negligible calorie value. Outside of medicine, licorice extract finds its major application in the candy industry, as a masking agent for bitter flavors and, to a minor extent, in the breweries where certain kinds of beer (porter, bass, etc.) are colored and at the same time flavored with licorice extract. The bitter herb extracts in the beer are masked by the licorice sweetness and flavor. Another effect enjoyed by the breweries is that Licorice Extract produces a very stable foam in carbonated beverages. (For this effect, licorice extract is also used in fire extinguishers). The tobacco industry uses tremendous amounts of licorice, particularly for pipe and chewing tobacco. It is worthwhile remembering that licorice extracts can *not** *be used for flavoring in acid media. The **Glycyrrhizin **is inactivated as a sweetener by acids. This is a serious drawback since the masking of a bitter flavor is usually obtained by introducing a sour (acid) taste. The acid taste sensation is intensified in the presence of bitter tasting substances. The actual result is that the sour (acid) taste sensation arrives faster to the brain than does the bitter taste. This brief interval or delay is then utilized by the introduction of flavor materials such as sweeteners, etc. As mentioned above, only aqueous extracts come into consideration. If licorice root or rhizomes are extracted with ethyl alcohol, the resulting extract will have an acrid taste due to an oleoresin which is insoluble in water but partly soluble in alcohol. It seems to be customary in flavor literature to describe the odor of anise, fennel, etc. as "licorice-like". This is another typical example of association of two flavors: licorice is very often flavored (in candy, cough-syrup, etc.) with anise oil, anethole, etc., and the anisic flavor has become almost synonymous with that of the name: **Licorice**. (Compare the similar error of: chocolate-vanillin, see also **Odor**** ****Description **in Part One of this work). Licorice does not smell of anise, nor does anise smell of licorice. They have a certain sweetness in common. Anyone who has ever tasted or smelled "Baracco" licorice extract bars from Calabria in Italy or chewed the rough, cubed blocks from Turkey will agree. The annual world production of Licorice Extract can be estimated only very roughly at many thousands of tons.