What are the varieties and types of licorice?

1. Licorice (Glycyrrhiza): The root is cylindrical, 30-120 cm long, 0.6-3 cm in diameter. The outer bark varies in tightness, red-brown, dark brown or grayish-brown, with obvious wrinkles and furrows, commonly known as "drawn furrows and sunken ridges," with sparse fine rootlet scars. The lenticels are transversely elongated, and the cut surfaces at both ends are slightly sunken in the center. The center of the cut section shrinks to about the size of a pepper eye, called "pepper eye." The texture is solid and heavy, the fractured surface is fibrous, yellow-white, starchy, with obvious cambium ring markings and radial striations, and fissures. The rhizome surface has bud scars, and the transverse section has a pith in the center. The odor is faint, and the taste is sweet and distinctive.

2. Glycyrrhiza glabra (European licorice): The root and rhizome are relatively solid in texture, some have branches, the outer bark is not rough, mostly grayish-brown.

3. Glycyrrhiza inflata (inflated licorice): The root and rhizome are lignified, thick and sturdy, some have branches, the outer bark is rough, mostly grayish-brown or grayish-brown; the texture is hard, with much woody fiber and little starch. Adventitious buds are numerous and sturdy.

Powdered licorice has a pale yellow, smooth surface, with knife-shaving marks and longitudinal cracks.

(1) West Grass: Mainly includes western Inner Mongolia's Yikezhao League, Bayannur League, Alxa League, and northern Ningxia. Products from northern Shaanxi, northern Shanxi, and the Hexi Corridor area of Gansu are all classified under this quality category. What is produced here is all genuine licorice, usually with both ends trimmed evenly, relatively uniform strips, red color, fine and tight bark texture, with relatively obvious "drawn furrows and sunken ridges" and "pepper eyes," abundant starch, and sweet taste. In the past, it was further divided by production area into:

1. Liangwai Grass: Produced in Hangjin Banner in the southern Hetao. It is the finest grade of licorice, with a solid body, jujube-red outer bark, goose-yellow inner color, and abundant starch.

2. Wangye Ground Grass: Mainly produced in the Dengkou area of Alxa Banner, also a premium licorice, with uniform strips, darker outer bark than Liangwai Grass, and also abundant starch.

3. Xizhen Grass: Produced in Otog Banner and the Taole and Yanchi areas of Ningxia. Its strips are also uniform, with red-brown bark; its starch and texture are inferior to the previous two, but it still belongs to high-quality licorice.

In addition, there are also Shanghechuan Grass (Dalad Banner area), Xiahechuan Grass (Baotou area and Togtoh Banner), and products from other production areas, whose quality is relatively inferior. The commercial product is mostly loose in body, uneven in strips, poor in bark color (grayish-brown), inferior in starch to the authentic products, and old yellow in inner color.

(2) East Grass: Refers to products mainly produced in eastern Inner Mongolia, the Northeast region, and the Hebei and Shanxi areas. Its commercial product often retains the reed head, so the head and tail are not removed. It is relatively long, sometimes branched, with relatively thin tails, a relatively rough epidermis, often appearing semi-detached, light in body and loose in texture, with a fractured surface often showing fibrous character, more fissures on the cut surface, and starch inferior to West Grass. The inner color is yellow or old yellow. It is often called "Hada Grass." The product from the Northeast has a full sweet taste and is often used as food; in the past, large quantities were exported to Japan. The product from Hebei and central Shanxi within the passes has a relatively faint sweet taste.

(3) ** Licorice: In the past, ** licorice was rarely used medicinally because of inconvenient transportation and inferior, impure strips. In recent years, because wild licorice resources (especially in the authentic production areas of Inner Mongolia) have been severely damaged, ** licorice, due to its large quantity, has gradually become one of the mainstream varieties. It is distributed in large quantities from ** to the west of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu. The main characteristics of its product are impure strips; licorice from all three plant sources has been seen (see the identification of the three licorices above), with Glycyrrhiza inflata and Glycyrrhiza being relatively common. The latter, depending on its traits, can be classified into the above-mentioned West Grass and East Grass after processing (see national specifications and grades). Glycyrrhiza inflata, because of its gray color, rough bark, lignification, poor starch, and thick sturdy form, with a sweet taste but slightly bitter and astringent, is commonly called "black ghost grass." It is mostly used as honey-fried licorice to mask its color. It is also commonly used as an industrial raw material, producing licorice extract, licorice tablets, etc.