Abstract

Licorice as a kind of traditional Chinese medicine is widely used for more than one thousand years. Modern studies show that Licorice has antibacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, and other pharmacological effects. In recent years, the anti-tumor effect of Licorice has evoked the great interest due to its bioactive ingredients. The most active ingredients in Licorice mainly include triterpenes, flavonoids, polysaccharides, and so on. In this review, a comprehensive overview on the active ingredients of Glycyrrhiza and its antitumor mechanism was addressed.

Keywords: Glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhetinic acid, glycyrrhizic flavones, glycyrrhizic amylose, anticancer