Recent Progress of Chemical Components and Biological Activities of Licorice Roots

Licorice root is one kind of traditional Chinese Medicine, which has a long history of clinical use and has been widely considered by Chinese and foreign scholars. Many works on the chemical constituents (including flavonoids, triterpene, polysaccharides, alkaloids, and amino acids, etc.) together with their biological activities (including anti-oxidation, anti-tumor, enhancing the body's immunity, anti-fatigue, regulating the digestive system, lowering blood sugar, decreasing blood lipids and so on) have been achieved. In this mini-review, we comprehensively reviewed the recent progress of its constituents and biological activities by searching through CNKI, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases to provide a comprehensive reference for the researchers.