ABSTRACT
Liquorice is one of the plants widely used in medicine for gastrointesinal problems and as a flavoring agent in tobacco and soft drink industries. The main active constituents of liquorice are glycyrrhetic acid and samponin. These two active components have been investigated by many authors and glycyrrhetic acid was suggested to be a hypertensive agent. In our study we tested this hypotethesis in workers occupationally exposed to liquorice during its industrial extraction in one of the pharmaceutical companies in Egypt. Twenty two occupationally exposed workers were clinically examined, 78% had respiratory problems. 73% showed history of nasal and upper respiratory tract irritation, while 36% had hypertension more than 160/95. The mean value of total cholesterol was 144.5 +/- 23.6, LDL 88.7 +/- 17.3, HDL 43.65 +/- 21.4, Gamma-GT 6.8 +/- 2.8, SGOT 9.3 +/- 0.97, SGPT 8.6 +/- 3.6 and serum creatinine 0.89 +/- 0.2 Ammonia levels in the working environment were 35-48 ppm. Our data indicated that liquorice had a hypertensive effects on the exposed group, however these workers had lower levels of serum lipids which requires further study to explore the pharmacological effect of liquorice on humans who had hyperlipidemia