REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Renal Pharmacology
Licorice in Nephropathy Treatment: Phytochemical Compositions and Pharmacological Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xianyang Normal University, Xianyang, China
- 2Yan'an University Xianyang Hospital, Xianyang, China
- 3Shangluo University, Shangluo, China
- 4Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
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Nephropathy refers to a wide range of kidney dysfunction and is a highly prevalent condition worldwide, often associated with several disorders, including inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), autophagy, and the deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM). Licorice has been used in China for thousands of years to treat nephropathy, while the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. The triterpenoid and flavonoid compounds are the main components of licorice. The main bioactive components of licorice against nephropathy are glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhetinic acid, isoliquiritigenin, glabridin, isoliquiritin and licochalcone A. These components alleviate kidney injury through anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress, anti-apoptosis, promoting autophagy, inhibiting EMT, and reducing ECM deposition by targeting the signaling pathways of NF-κB, TGF-β1, JNK, MAPK, p53, STAT3 and HMGB1. This review will provide a new insight to clarify the bioactive components of licorice against nephropathy and their corresponding mechanisms, which aims to provide useful information for the further application of licorice.
Keywords: licorice, nephropathy, chronic kidney diseases, Glycyrrhiza uralenssis Fish., Glycyrrhiza inflate Bat., Glycyrrhiza glabra L
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Shui, Jiang, Wang, Chen, Chen and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ya-long Feng, fengyalong2012@163.com
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