Licorice Root Extract

About This Product

Licorice root extract is prepared from the roots and rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza species and carries CAS number 68916-91-6. This grade is a powdered extract standardised to 7 percent glycyrrhizic acid, the triterpene glycoside that makes liquorice sweet.

Glycyrrhizic acid is some 30 to 50 times sweeter than sucrose, with a slow onset and a long, characteristically liquorice finish, so in foods it works less as a sugar replacer than as a flavour and sweetness enhancer. It rounds and prolongs other sweeteners, masks bitterness and salty harshness, and underpins the flavour of liquorice confectionery, and small amounts are used in chocolate, vanilla and malt flavours and in soy-based seasonings. Its physiological activity sets the limits. Regular high intake of glycyrrhizic acid can raise blood pressure, and EU labelling rules require foods above set glycyrrhizin thresholds to state that they contain liquorice, with an additional warning for people with hypertension at higher levels. Formulations should therefore be dosed on glycyrrhizic acid content, which is why standardisation matters.

It is used in liquorice and other confectionery, soft drinks and herbal beverages, flavour compounding for chocolate, vanilla and malt profiles, seasonings and sauces, and food supplements.

Bio Green Foods supplies licorice root extract standardised to 7 percent glycyrrhizic acid, with the full specification on moisture, ash, heavy metals, pesticide residues and microbiology confirmed with the quotation, in 25 kg fibre drums or 1 kg bags.