Phenolic compounds from Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice)

Licorice has an extensive history of medicinal uses in Eastern and Western systems of medicine. A number of medicinal properties such as anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, laxative, anti-diabetic, immunomodulatory, and antitumour have been associated with this species. Over fifty phenolic constituents belonging to chalcones, flavanoids, isoflavanoids flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and phenylcoumarins classes were isolated from the methanolic extract of licorice and characterized by of NMR and mass spectroscopic techniques. Among the isolates, three compounds, a prenylated phenylcoumarin (1), a prenylated isoflavanoid (2), and phenylpropanated chalcone (3) were found to be new.

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