Antitumor Activities of Widely-used Chinese Herb—Licorice

Licorice (the roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis) is widely-used in Chinese herbal compound prescriptions for its functions of nourishing qi, alleviating pain, tonifying spleen and stomach, eliminating phlegm, relieving coughing, and harmonizing prescriptions. It contains more than 20 triterpenoids and approximately 300 flavonoids. In recent years, many studies have reported that it possesses various pharmacological activities, such as antitumor, antimicrobial, and antivirus effects. In this paper, the antitumor activity of licorice is deeply summarized. The antitumor active components and the possible antitumor mechanism are analyzed.