Yashtimadhu Extract (Licorice Root)

Yashtimadhu is licorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (family Fabaceae), and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India defines it on the dried root and stolon. It is one of the few Ayurvedic botanicals with a genuine dual identity: a herbal extract on one hand and a recognised food-technology material on the other, since its principal saponin is 50–100 times as sweet as sucrose and carries the familiar licorice flavour note. That dual character drives the grade structure below, and buyers should decide early which axis they are buying on, because a sweetener-grade lot and a cosmetic-actives lot share a botanical name and almost nothing else. Three distinct product families are supplied. Glycyrrhizin grades are standardised on glycyrrhizic acid (CAS 1405-86-3, C42H62O16, MW 822.93), a triterpene saponin present at roughly 2–15% in the raw root and concentrated to 10–25% in typical commercial extracts; Thovek offers 5%, 10%, 20% and 25% by UV or HPLC. Glabridin grades are standardised on the isoflavan glabridin (CAS 59870-68-7, C20H20O4, MW 324.38) at 10%, 20% and 40% by HPLC, and are bought almost exclusively by the personal-care and cosmetic-actives trade. Deglycyrrhizinated licorice, DGL, is the third family: glycyrrhizin is removed to below 3% while the flavonoid fraction is retained, and this is the grade oral-supplement brands generally want. Glycyrrhizic acid is stable within pH 4–9 and heat-stable in normal processing, though it may precipitate below pH 4 — a relevant constraint for acidic beverage bases. The material is vegan and vegetarian, free of milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, tree nut, peanut, sesame and gluten inputs, with no animal-derived processing aids. Licorice belongs to the Fabaceae and is not itself a declarable allergen in the EU, US or India, but customers running lupin-controlled or legume-controlled lines should request our cross-contact statement. One intake constraint governs formulation everywhere: the EU Scientific Committee on Food concluded that regular ingestion should not exceed 100 mg glycyrrhizin per day from all sources, a figure it described as provisional and considered sufficiently protective for most of the population. Set the daily dose of any glycyrrhizin-bearing grade against that ceiling, and use DGL where the intended serving size would otherwise breach it.