Ota Misato, Mikage Masayuki, Cai Shao-Qing
Yakushigaku Zasshi. 2015;50(1):38-45.
In China, the crude drug licorice ("kanzo" in Japanese, "gancao" in Chinese) has been used both dried and roasted as the situation demands from ancient times. The meaning of "roasted licorice" is simply roasted and honey-roasted in ancient and modern times, respectively. However, it is not clear medicinal purposes of processed licorice or why licorice processed with honey began to be used. We researched ancient literature and found that the main objective of roasting was to change the property of licorice from cool to warm (i.e., dried licorice had the effect of draining fire), while roasted licorice was used as an energy supplement, having a digestive effect and thus warming the body. Meanwhile, doctors began using honey-roasted licorice to treat throat pain from the Song dynasty, and then at the end of the Qing dynasty, honey-roasted licorice was expected to have the same effects of roasted licorice (i.e., supplementing energy and having a digestive effect).
在中国，生药甘草（日语为“かんぞ”，中文为“甘草”）自古以来就根据实际需求以生用和炙用两种形式入药。“炙甘草”的含义在古代和现代分别简单地指炒制和蜜炙。然而，炙甘草的药用目的以及为何开始使用蜜炙甘草并不明确。我们研究了古代文献，发现炙制的主要目的是将甘草的药性由凉变温（即生甘草有泻火作用），而炙甘草用作能量补充剂，具有消化作用从而温暖身体。同时，从宋代起医生开始用蜜炙甘草治疗咽痛，到清末，蜜炙甘草被认为具有与炙甘草相同的功效（即补充能量和具有消化作用）。
