Liquorice - the black stuff we love to eat, may help prevent cancer

Liquorice - the black stuff we love to eat, contains a compound - glycyrrhizic acid which may stop people with a herpes virus from developing cancer. A research team at New York University found the compound - glycyrrhizic acid - possibly has the ability to stop the virus triggering a form of cancer called Kaposi sarcoma.

This form of cancer causes tumours to develop in tissues beneath the skins' surface and is usually found in people with a depressed immune system. Many of the viruses that infect people can remain dormant in cells for long periods and when they are reactivated, they can cause pain and distress. While progress for the treatment of active infections is good, treating latent infections remains difficult; progress has been slow.

The New York team showed that glycyrrhizic acid (GA) has the ability to kill cells harbouring the herpes virus associated with Kaposi sarcoma.

GA was able to disrupt the virus' ability to stay dormant in a cell, with the potential to trigger disease. It interferred with the production of crucial proteins and the delicate balance between virus and cell was destroyed, meaning death to the infected cells.

This the first time an anti-viral agent has been found that specifically targets the genes required to maintain the virus in a latent state.

It is a promising lead in the development of new drugs to combat latent viral infections.

Dr Jeffrey Cohen, from the US National Institutes Of Health, commented that liquorice, though a seemingly unlikely candidate for the treatment of virus-associated cancers, other traditional drugs have also proved highly effective for some infectious diseases.

Wormwood plant extracts, a traditional Chinese medication for the treatment of fevers, contain artemisinin - derivatives of this compound are first-line treatments for drug-resistant malaria.

Liquorice, derived from the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, has been used for more than 4,000 years as a flavouring agent in foods, beverages, and tobacco and is also used as an alternative medicine for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers, sore throat, bronchitis, cough, arthritis, adrenal insufficiency, and allergic diseases.