London:
Forget about what your grandma has to say about the health benefits of Liquorice or commonly known as Muleti in India to treat all ailments from cold to stomach ache. Pregnant women should avoid eating large amount of liquorice as it affect the development of your little one in womb, found the new study.
According to study, Muleti contains a component Glycyrrhizin that intensifies the effect of stress hormone commonly known as corticol that also have adverse affect on the development of foetus. It also causes higher blood pressure and shorter pregnancies in humans.
Researchers suggest that pregnant women and women planning pregnancy should be informed of the harmful effects that products containing glycyrrhizin - such as liquorice and salty liquorice - may have on the foetus.
Researchers have found that youths that were exposed to large amounts of liquorice in the womb performed less well than others in cognitive reasoning tests carried out by a psychologist. The difference was equivalent to about seven IQ points.
Scientist found that individual exposed to liquorice also performed less well in tasks measuring memory capacity and according to parental estimates, they had more ADHD-type problems than others. With girls, puberty had started earlier and advanced further.
Researchers, including those from the University of Helsinki in Finland, compared 378 youths of about 13 years whose mothers had consumed “large amounts” or “little/no” liquorice during pregnancy.
In the study a large amount was defined as over 500 milligrammes (mg) and little/no as less than 249 mg glycyrrhizin per week. These cutoffs are not based on health effects. 500 mg glycyrrhizin corresponds on average to 250 grammes liquorice.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
