Table 2.

Comparison for liquorice uses in the antiquity and today

Apparatus	Uses in the past	Recently proposed uses
Respiratory system	Asthma, diseases affecting voice, lung diseases, cough (Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Scribonius Largus, Marcellus Empiricus, Cassius Felix, Avicenna, Jacobus Philippus and Nicholas Culpeper)	For dissolving and facilitating the discharge of mucus in catarrhs and for upper respiratory tract (Commission E Monograph, Blumenthal et al., 2000)
Gastrointestinal system	Burning sensation of stomach, diseases of liver, mouth ulcerations (Dioscorides, Plinius the Elder, Marcellus Empiricus, Avicenna and Nicholas Culpeper)	Gastric and duodenal ulcer (Blumenthal et al., 2000); adjuvant in treating spasmodic pains of chronic gastritis (Bradley, 1992, Wichtl and Bisset, 1994); laxative (Armanini et al., 2002)
Cardiovascular system	Artery diseases, heart palpitations, angina (Scribonius Largus, Avicenna and Hildegard von Bingen)	Antioxidant, hypolipidemic (Fuhrman et al., 1997, Fuhrman et al., 2002).
Genital–urinary system	Bladder and kidney pain, kidney stones, diuretic (Plinius the Elder, Dioscorides, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, Claudius Galen, Marcellus Empiricus, Avicenna, Jacobus Philippus, Castore Durante, Nicholas Culpeper and Giuseppe Donzelli	No described rational uses, but a diuretic effect only in association with other herbals (Ross, 2001)
Skin	Skin lesions, ulcers, condyloma, genital ulcers (Dioscorides and Nicholas Culpeper)	For the treatment of atopic dermatitis (Saeedi et al., 2003); antiiinflammatory against U.V., edema and erythema (Fujita et al., 1980, Halder and Richards, 2004)
Eye	Pterygium (Dioscorides, Plinius the Elder, Nicholas Culpeper)	No described rational uses
Other	Against thirst, fever and neuralgia (Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Marcellus Empiricus)	No described rational uses