DGL Licorice Root Digestion: The One Compound We Remove and Why

The Oasis Health Journal · Submitted July 28, 2026 · 3:00 PM EDT

By June Mackerel · Edited by Colette Ward

Deglycyrrhizinated licorice is regular licorice with one molecule removed, rather like a lorry with the brakes taken out, only in this case removing the component makes the vehicle safer, not less so, which is an unusual bit of engineering when you think about it. This is how DGL licorice root digestion support works: by subtraction.

The molecule in question is glycyrrhizin. It contributes the characteristic flavour of licorice, and also a tendency to cause the body to retain sodium, excrete potassium, and raise blood pressure as though one had been made an officer of the East India Company. This is not a metaphor. A seventy-one-year-old gentleman consumed licorice-containing confectionary for six weeks and subsequently required admission to intensive care with severe hypokalemia, which is the medical term for 'dangerously low potassium'. His case was published in 2025 as a warning to others who might find themselves in possession of a large tin of sweets and insufficient concern for their electrolyte balance.

So when we speak of DGL licorice root digestion support, we are speaking of a preparation from which glycyrrhizin has been carefully extracted, leaving behind the flavonoids, tannins, and terpenoids that appear to do the gastroprotective work without the aldosterone impersonation. It is a bit like hiring a plumber who does not also rearrange your furniture without asking.

What Glycyrrhizin Does When Left to Its Own Devices

Glycyrrhizin is metabolized in the body to glycyrrhizic acid, which inhibits an enzyme called 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2. This enzyme normally inactivates cortisol in the kidneys so that aldosterone, not cortisol, binds to mineralocorticoid receptors. When you block the enzyme, cortisol binds instead, and the kidneys behave as though aldosterone levels are elevated even when they are not. The condition is called pseudohyperaldosteronism, which is Latin for 'your lab results look alarming but actually you have been eating sweets'.

The consequences are sodium retention, potassium loss, suppressed renin and aldosterone, elevated blood pressure, and in sufficiently enthusiastic cases, arrhythmia and muscular weakness. A 2025 review on nutritional factors in Long QT Syndrome noted licorice as a substance that may influence cardiac repolarization, particularly in individuals with genetic predispositions to arrhythmic risk. One does not wish to interfere with one's QT interval whilst attempting to address heartburn.

Deglycyrrhizination removes at least ninety-seven percent of the glycyrrhizin. What remains, according to a 2025 trial of a proprietary deglycyrrhizinated licorice supplement, is three percent or less by weight. The process leaves the flavonoid content intact.

DGL Licorice Root Digestion Relief: What Two Hundred People Taught Us

In a phase-three, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial published in 2025, two hundred adults with gastroesophageal reflux-related symptoms were assigned either a deglycyrrhizinated licorice extract or a matched placebo for twenty-eight days. The extract in question was GutGard, standardized to at least three point five percent glabridin and at least ten percent total flavonoids, with glycyrrhizin held below three percent.

The intervention group reported significantly better quality of life at day twenty-eight. They also reported earlier resolution of heartburn and regurgitation. Heartburn showed significant improvement by day fourteen and again at day twenty-eight. Regurgitation improved by day seven, and the difference held at days fourteen and twenty-eight.

The study was industry-funded, which one notes with the same enthusiasm one reserves for discovering the minutes of a committee meeting were taken by the committee chair. The effect was modest. Nobody experienced a gastrointestinal rapture. But the heartburn did, I am afraid, diminish, and it did so within two weeks, which in the context of human digestion research counts as rather prompt.

A 2024 review examining fifty-four North African medicinal plants for gastroprotective efficacy noted licorice among the more promising candidates. The proposed mechanisms included enhancement of the gastric mucosal barrier, inhibition of acid secretion, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, promotion of ulcer healing, and activity against Helicobacter pylori. The review concluded that further clinical research would be needed to establish efficacy and safety in humans, which is the scientific equivalent of saying 'it looks rather good on paper, do let us know how it goes'.

DGL vs Regular Licorice: A Question of What You Keep

The difference between DGL and whole-root licorice is not complicated. Regular licorice contains glycyrrhizin. DGL does not, or contains a negligible amount, typically below three percent. Everything else is effectively the same: the flavonoids, the coumarins, the triterpene saponins that are not glycyrrhizin, the volatile oils.

A 2020 review of Glycyrrhiza glabra identified more than four hundred constituents in the plant, including liquirtin, rhamnoliquirilin, liquiritigenin, prenyllicoflavone A, glucoliquiritin apioside, glabridin, glycyrrhizin, isoangustone A, licoriphenone, and a number of other compounds whose names sound as though they were coined by a cooperative of medieval herbalists and organic chemists working in uncomfortable proximity. When glycyrrhizin is extracted, these others remain.

If you are seeking licorice root digestive support and you do not require the additional drama of monitoring blood pressure and serum potassium, DGL licorice is the more conservative choice. If you have a history of elevated blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, renal impairment, or a predisposition to electrolyte imbalance, it is not merely conservative but necessary.

The recommended approach for those wondering what is deglycyrrhizinated licorice good for is to consult the literature on gastric mucosal protection and then consult your own clinician about your own digestive complaints. The former will tell you what was measured in trials. The latter will tell you whether it applies to you.

An Unlikely Enzyme Story, Briefly

One rather odd trial, published in 2026, gave eighty-three diabetic patients with early-stage polyneuropathy either a fermented deglycyrrhizinated licorice preparation containing alpha-amylase enzyme or a placebo for six months. The intervention group showed significant improvements in motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity and a reduction in vibration perception threshold compared to placebo.

The preparation was fermented and contained an enzyme not typically associated with licorice. The trial was measuring neurological outcomes, not digestive ones. It is not clear whether the effect belonged to the DGL, the fermentation, the enzyme, or a combination one would not have thought to test if not for a graduate student with six months and a rather specific hypothesis.

I mention it only because it appeared in the literature, and because the notion of giving someone DGL licorice root before meals to address nerve conduction is the sort of outcome that makes one wonder what else we have missed by assuming we know what a plant does.

For those interested in where to buy quality DGL licorice supplement, the usual considerations apply: third-party testing, standardization to glabridin or total flavonoids, confirmation that glycyrrhizin has been reduced below three percent, and a manufacturer who does not make claims that would embarrass a Victorian patent-medicine salesman. If the label promises a cure, restoration of vitality, or any outcome involving the word 'toxins', one may safely assume the quality-control budget was spent elsewhere.

How much DGL licorice should I take daily is a question for your clinician, not a journalist with access to PubMed and a moderate concern for sodium balance. The trial that measured gastroesophageal reflux symptoms used a specific proprietary extract at a specific dose for twenty-eight days. Your dose, if any, will depend on your symptoms, your history, and whether your clinician believes the evidence supports the intervention. I am here to report what was measured, not to prescribe it.

Deglycyrrhizinated licorice is licorice with the dramatic bit removed. What remains is a collection of compounds that appear to support the gastric lining without requiring you to telephone your doctor about your potassium. It is a small edit. The consequences are rather larger than one might expect from subtracting a single molecule, which I suppose is the lesson one learns when studying plants that have been used as medicine for three thousand years and as confectionary for somewhat less. The plant does not care which application you had in mind. It simply does what the chemistry dictates, and the chemistry, I am afraid, is indifferent to your intentions.

This article is education and reporting on published research. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Talk to your own clinician about your own situation.

Sources

1. Randomized Double-blind Placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of fermented deglycyrrhizinated licorice for treatment of diabetic polyneuropathy, Endocrine (2026).
2. Gastroprotective Efficacy of North African Medicinal Plants: A Review on Their Therapeutic Potential for Peptic Ulcers, Food science & nutrition (2024).
3. Traditional Uses, Bioactive Chemical Constituents, and Pharmacological and Toxicological Activities of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae), Biomolecules (2020).
4. Nutritional Factors and Arrhythmic Risk in Long QT Syndrome: A Narrative Review of Mechanistic and Clinical Evidence, Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) (2025).
5. Efficacy and Safety of GutGard® in Managing Gastroesophageal Reflux-Related Symptoms: A Phase III, Single-Centre, Double-Blind, Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial, Complementary medicine research (2025).
6. Licorice-Induced Pseudohyperaldosteronism: A Case Report, Clinical case reports (2025).