Licorice toxicity debunked.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Re: Licorice Root
From: jtreasure.jonno.demon.co.uk (Jonathan Treasure)
Date: 19 May 1995 16:12:05 +0100

>I'm glad my first introduction to herbs was not from someone who thinks that "just 'cuz it's natural it can't possibly be harmful" because I've seen too much of that BS. If natural is always good and safe then I suppose you think heart patients would be better off chewing down foxglove rather than taking their heart meds? Or that it's just fine if kids go out and brew a little datura tea? Feed a few oleander beans to the baby? Of course not. So isn't it better to know exactly what the risks are, at least as well as they're understood, than to believe that all medicinal herbs are totally harmless?

Yawn yawn - the point is that CC DOES NOT KNOW what the risks are, and consistently spews out secondhand scare mongering from people like Tyler who is regarded with considerably less than zero respect by most people with more than two brain cells to rub together, which includes all herbalists. If her intentions are to inform, then she has blown it long ago by crying fire too often. NOONE believes herbal medicines are simply harmless to be consumed randomly in whatever quantity and noone but an idiot would do so - even in the USA people dont generally give datura to kids so try and RAISE the level of debate instead of insulting everyone's intelligence.

It is LAUGHABLE that cases of clinically insane licorice candy abuse have to be dragged up to try and rubbish licorice herb as a medicinal agent. After 6-7 years of licorice abuse some adverse symptoms showed up - well after a few hours of accidental paracetomol overdose your liver can pack up altogether so go and get steamed up about that if you want to talk about toxicity of freely available substances.

The problem is not thinking that natural is never harmful. The problem is not using basic intelligence. read the post on Hellebore poisoning elsewhere this group.