Licorice Root for Sore Throat Relief

Research on licorice root specifically for sore throat relief is extremely limited in the available evidence base, with the single identified study being a systematic scoping review from 2020 that examined alternative medicine proposals — including Traditional Chinese Medicine formulations that may contain licorice — in the context of COVID-19 prevention and treatment. That review found only eight relevant reports overall and concluded that none of the proposed remedies had been rigorously tested through well-designed clinical trials. Studies indicate that while licorice root appears in various traditional medicine systems, the current evidence does not include randomized controlled trials or meta-analyses specifically evaluating its effectiveness for sore throat relief. Readers should be aware that the absence of robust clinical evidence means no reliable conclusions can be drawn about its efficacy for this purpose based on the available research.