Nguyen Huu Tung, Hiromitsu Tanaka, Akira Tsujimura, Yasushi Miyagawa, Morimasa Wada, Shunsuke Fujii, Takuhiro Uto and Yukihiro Shoyama
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza species) is an important natural product that is frequently used in traditional Chinese medicine. In this review article, we discuss the quality control of licorice using monoclonal antibodies against the licorice components glyzyrrhizin (GC) and liquiritin (Liq); the monitoring of licorice extract activity using an assay system in mice; and the isolation of two active phenolic components, isolitiritigenin and formononetin, and their effectiveness for improving in vitro fertilization in mice. Finally, we present the outstanding questions and potential applications of licorice root extract.