Background : Licorice has been a medicinal crop which was mainly used as a traditional medicine and food, depends on most imports (99%) in Korea. We have been trying to produce licorice in Korea for a long time. However when it grow in Korea the main ingredients are below the standard value and occur of physiological disorder. Therefore, we evaluated the growth characteristics and major components of genetic resources to develop licorice varieties suitable for the domestic environment.
Methods and Results : We collected 19 accession of licorice from 7 regions including China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Russia from 2013 to 2014. After regenerating the resources of licorice in the field we identified and classified the species. Among them, 13 lines of 2 species (G. uralensis Fisch, G. glabra L.) were selected from 2015 to 2016. We evaluated the aerial parts, underground parts, yield and glycyrrhizin content of 13 line of licorice grown one year. Plant length and stem diameter of GLY2014 - 002 was high and thick on the aerial parts. GLY2013 - 005 had many pods. GLY2014-006 had many adventitious roots like taproot (3 ea/plant) and high of root weight (170 g/plant), GLY2013 - 005, GLY2014 - 006 had high glycyrrhizin content (2.1%) in the underground parts.
Conclusion : As a result of growth characteristics and glycyrrhizin analysis, GLY2013 - 002, GLY2013 - 005, GLY2013 - 007, GLY2014 - 002, GLY2014 - 006, and GLY2014 - 007 were evaluated as good resources. Therefore of six lines will be used to test productivity and conduct regional testing for developing licorice variety.