LIQUORICE  . The hard and semi-vitreous sticks of

paste, black in colour and possessed of a sweet somewhat astringent taste, known as liquorice paste or black sugar, are the inspissated juice of the roots of a leguminous plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra, the radix glycyrrhizae of the pharmacopoeia . The plant is cultivated throughout the warmer parts of Europe, especially on the Mediterranean shores, and to some extent in Louisiana and California . The roots for use are obtained in lengths of 3 or 4 ft., varying in diameter from 4 to 1 in.; they are soft, flexible and fibrous, and internally of a bright yellow colour, with a characteristic, sweet pleasant taste . To this sweet taste of its root the plant owes its generic name Glycyrrkiza (' XuKi b/u a, the sweet-root), of which the word liquorice is a corruption . The roots contain grape-sugar, starch, resin, asparagine, malic acid and the glucoside glycyrrhizin, C24 H36 09, a yellow amorphous powder with an acid reaction and a distinctive bitter-sweet taste . On hydrolysis, glycyrrhizin yields glucose and glycyrrhetin . Stick liquorice is made by crushing and grinding the roots to a pulp, which is boiled in water over an open fire, and the decoction separated from the solid residue of the root is evaporated till a sufficient degree of concentration is attained, after which, on cooling, it is rolled into the form of sticks or other shapes for the market . The preparation of the juice is a widely extended industry along the Mediterranean coasts; but the quality best appreciated in the United Kingdom is made in Calabria, and sold under the names of Solazzi and Corigliano juice . Liquorice enters into the composition of many cough lozenges and other demulcent preparations; and in the form of aromatic syrups and elixirs it has a remarkable effect in masking the taste of nauseous medicines .