Breakthrough Discovery: Korea’s ‘Won-gam’ Licorice Variety Shows Promise in Preventing Human Coronavirus Proliferation

Korea’s first domestically developed licorice variety, ‘Won-gam’, has been found to contain a single ingredient that is effective in preventing the proliferation of human coronaviruses, which cause colds and other diseases.

The Rural Development Administration and Yonsei University jointly conducted a study that discovered the efficacy of ‘Won-gam’ in preventing human coronavirus proliferation. The results of this study were published in the international journals ‘Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry’ and ‘International Journal of Molecular Science’.

Human coronavirus is a type of coronavirus that causes the common cold. In this experiment, the efficacy of ‘Won-gam’ was indirectly assessed using a similar virus, human coronavirus, instead of the COVID-19 virus.

The study revealed that ‘Won-gam’ contains 11 types of polyphenol components, which are known for their excellent physiological efficacy. Additionally, it was confirmed that three out of 11 polyphenols inhibited the enzyme function involved in coronavirus proliferation by up to 50% even at very low concentrations.

Furthermore, these ingredients were also effective in reducing viral genes by up to 90% inside and outside human coronavirus-infected cells. The polyphenol component was also found to have an effect in inhibiting the formation of clumps of dead cells, which normally occurs when a virus multiplies.

This study is significant in that it confirmed that Korea’s licorice varieties contain useful polyphenols and that these polyphenols have the effect of inhibiting the proliferation of human coronaviruses. In the future, the research team plans to conduct additional experiments to confirm its effect on the proliferation of the COVID-19 virus.

Yoon Young-ho, head of the Medicinal Crops Division at the National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, stated that ‘Won-gam’ is a variety that can be stably cultivated domestically due to its high productivity, indicator components, and resistance to leaf spot disease. He added that the results of this study will be used as basic data to expand the use of Korea’s licorice as food, medicine, and other applications.