MULATHI
English : Liquorice/Sweet wood
Urdu : Mulathi/Mulhatti/Mithi Lakdi
Telugu : Yashti-madhukam
Description :
It is a small 1-5 m high,erect,herbaceous perennial having leaflets 4-7 pairs,oblong to lanceolate,acute or obtuse,violet coloured flowers 1 cm long and many-seeded,compressed,small and glandular pods oblong to linear,1-3 cm long.Its root which is underground,consists of additional long roots.
Peeled liquorice occurs in cylindrical pale yellow pieces with a fibrous surface 1-2 cm in diameter.When unpeeled,the external surface is yellowish-brown or dark brown and longitudinally wrinkled.Odour is faint and characterstic and taste sweet almost free from bitterness.
Action and Uses:
Liquorice root is sweet,cooling,tonic, diuretic,alterative,emmenagogue,galactagogue,mild lexative and expectorant.
It is used in cough,bronchitis,asthma,hoarseness of voice,catarrhal condition of bowels and urinary passages and dysuria.It is also used for relieving pain,discomfort and burning sesation of the stomach.It seems to remove the irritative effects of gastric acids in a better way than alkalies i.e a good antacid.
Usually it is used in the form of powder in gastro-intestinal diseases alone or with other drugs e.g fennel and ginger or cardamom and mint etc.It is also used in the form of decoction with other drugs in chest affections.
Ibn sina’s view:
It soothens and clears trachea and useful for lungs,throat and voice.It is thrist quenching,good for gastritis,burning micturition and ulceration in kidney and cystitis.It is also useful in chronic fevers.