Bad breath? Chew a piece of this root for a minute

CHENNAI : No need of strange or strong reasons to break one’s friendship than bad breath! Known as halitosis medically, this bad breath causes significant negative role in one’s love and relationships. Infections in the mouth, poor oral hygiene habits including liquor consumption and smoking are reported as the causes of occasional bad breath.

Long-term systemic diseases like diabetes and infections in liver, kidney, lung are also known to cause chronic halitosis. Hormonal imbalance, nausea, unhygienic food habits are the possible reasons for halitosis in women. Brushing and flossing twice or thrice a day too, hardly keeps the breath fresh and odourless. Is there any solution then?

Yes. A simple way to keep away halitosis is just chewing a piece of root of a plant for a minute; this will keep the breath fresh and fragrant for almost 10 hours. That too, the root tastes not just sweet but sweetest, due to the presence of beneficial compounds such as anethole and glycyrrhizin.

Popularly known as Atimadhuram (ati = high; madhuram = sweet) in almost all the vernaculars in India, Indian Liqourice is one of the highly traded medicinal plant species in our country. Glycyrrhiza glabra L. is a member of the Fabaceae family. It is a perennial, stoloniferous (new plants arise from running roots) herbs, up to 1.5 m tall. Roots thick, brownish-red outside and yellowish-green inside

. Leaves are compound, odd-pinnate, up to 15 cm long and 8 cm broad. Leaflets are 9-17, up to 3 cm long and 1.5 cm broad, ovate or elliptic-ovate in shape. Inflorescences are axillary, slender, many-flowered racemes. Flowers are pink or purple in colour, attractive. Fruits are pods, oblong, flat up to 3 cm long. It is found to grow well in the sub-tropical regions of Western Himalaya but cultivated throughout the warmer parts of India. Indian liquorice is also used therapeutically against cough, skin infections, peptic ulcers, jaundice, etc.