National Licorice Day

Five Food Finds about Licorice.

  • The botanical name for licorice translates to “sweet root.”
  • The licorice plant is actually a member of the pea family.
  • Licorice gets its flavor from glycyrrhizic acid, a chemical 50x sweeter than sugar!
  • This flavor is used in many products other than licorice candy, such as alcohol, tobacco, and of course food.
  • Carbenoxolone, a compound derived from licorice root, may help slow the effects of aging on the brain.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1748 Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was born. A French botanist whose ideas formed the foundation of a natural plant classification system.

1985 The four ‘unicorns’ of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus were declared to be only goats with surgically implanted horns by federal inspectors. The circus was ordered to stop advertising them as unicorns

1988 The first U.S. patent on an animal life form was issued to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.

1989 The USSR issued ration cards for sugar due to a shortage

2001 Maryland banned the farming of genetically modified fish in any waters linked to other bodies of water.