中文摘要：

甘草为豆科植物甘草、胀果甘草或光果甘草的根及根茎,生用或蜜炙用均可。味甘性平,归心、肺、脾、胃经。具有补脾益气、祛痰止咳、缓急止痛、清热解毒、调和诸药的作用。在《伤寒论》113方中,含有甘草的方剂有70方。《脾胃论》载方64首,含甘草的方剂37首。甘草可单用,亦多配伍使用,如甘草配滑石清暑利湿之效增,配桔梗清肺利咽,合黄芩、黄连可增清热解毒之效,配干姜、附子可缓解二药峻烈之性且能延长药力等。

英文摘要：

Liquorice is the root and rhizome of legume licorice, Glycyrrhiza inflata or Glycyrrhiza glabra, which can be used rawly or honey-processedly. Its flavour is gan and ping for heart, lung, spleen and stomach channels. It has the functions of invigorating spleen and replenishing qi, expelling phlegm and relieving cough, relieving spasm and pain as well as clearing away heat and toxic materials and coordinating with other herbs in a prescription. Licorice is used extremely extensively in clinical applications. For example, in 113 prescriptions of Treatise on Febrile Diseases there are 70 ones include Licorice and 37 prescriptions use it in the Theory of the Spleen and Stomach. Licorice can be used alone, and more clinically used with other herbs. Licorice can be used together with talc to reinforce the function of clearing summer-heat and damp, with platycodon grandiflorum to strengthen the effect of clearing lung pharynx, with radix scutellariae and rhizoma coptidis to increase the action of heat-clearing and detoxifying, with dried ginger and monkshood to reduce toxicity of the latter two and improve effect.