Liqiang Wang, Rui Yang, Bochuan Yuan, Ying Liu, and Chunsheng Liu

For centuries, licorice is an herb that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, and recent studies have reported that the 20 triterpenoids and newly 300 flavonoids possess many pharmacological activities, including antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and more. Among these activities, antiviral and antimicrobial have been the most reported. Found in licorice root are two major active components glyhcyrrhizin (GL), and glycrrhetinic acid that possess high antiviral activity. These two components can weaken virus activities by inhibiting virus gene replication and expression, thus reducing HMGB1 binding to DNA.