甘草中的黃酮類成分是廣譜抗腫瘤活性成分，已發(fā)現(xiàn)異甘草素、異甘草苷、甘草查耳酮A、甘草查耳酮E、甘草素、光甘草定、光甘草素和甘草醇等8個黃酮類成分具有抗腫瘤作用，其中對異甘草素抗腫瘤作用的研究最為廣泛和深入，可望將其開發(fā)成低毒抗癌藥。綜述了甘草粗提物、甘草黃酮類化合物的抗腫瘤作用。

Favonoid constituents from licorice have broad-spectrum anticancer activities. There are eight kinds of flavonoid compounds with anticancer activities, including isoliquiritigenin, isoliquiritin, licochalcone A, licochalcone E, liquiritigenin, glabridin, glabrene and glycyrol. Among the compounds, isoliquiritigenin is the one that has been deep and widely studied, which show that it is promising to become a hypotoxic anticancer drug. This review summarize the anticancer effects of crude extracts licorice and its flavonoids.