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Planetary Herbals DGL Licorice Chewable (380 mg) – Soothing Stomach & Intestinal Comfort
Occasional heartburn, sour stomach, and digestive burning can disrupt your daily routine. While conventional antacids temporarily shut down your stomach acid, your stomach actually needs that acid to break down food, absorb key nutrients, and keep bad bacteria in check.
Planetary Herbals DGL Licorice delivers 380 mg of premium, deglycyrrhizinated licorice root extract (10:1 concentration) in pleasant orange-flavored chewable tablets. Rather than interfering with your body’s natural digestive fluids, DGL works with your body to stimulate your stomach’s own natural protective mucous lining.
Key Product Highlights:
- ✓ Concentrated 10:1 Extract: Delivers 380 mg of pure licorice root concentrate per chewable tablet.
- ✓ Deglycyrrhizinated for Safety: Glycyrrhizin is removed so it will not raise blood pressure or cause water retention.
- ✓ Saliva-Activated Formula: Chewable delivery ensures direct contact with the esophagus and upper digestive tract.
- ✓ Great-Tasting Chewable: Naturally flavored with real orange oil for an enjoyable taste before every meal.
- ✓ Time-Tested Brand: Formulated by herbal expert Michael Tierra, L.Ac., O.M.D., for Planetary Herbals.
How DGL Licorice Works: Supporting Your Stomach's Natural Protective Shield
Think of your stomach like a wood-burning fireplace. To keep the fire from damaging the surrounding walls, you need thick, heat-resistant bricks. In your digestive tract, those "bricks" are made up of a specialized gel layer called mucus, produced by cells in the stomach wall.
When stress, coffee, spicy foods, or medications wear that protective layer thin, stomach acid makes contact with delicate tissue, resulting in burning sensations and discomfort.
Standard medications often work by lowering the temperature of the "fire" (shutting down stomach acid production). DGL takes the opposite, tissue-supporting approach:
- Stimulates Mucus Production: Active herbal flavonoids in DGL prompt your stomach cells to generate more of the thick, defensive fluid that coats the stomach and esophageal wall.
- Extends Cell Lifespan: Clinical evidence indicates that DGL extends the life of gut mucosal cells, helping tissues renew and repair properly.
- Boosts Local Microcirculation: It supports micro-capillary blood flow within the digestive lining, delivering vital nutrients and oxygen right where tissues need them most.
Why Must DGL Licorice Be Chewed Instead of Swallowed?
Many people wonder why Planetary Herbals formulates DGL as a chewable wafer instead of a quick-swallow pill or capsule. The answer lies in how digestion begins: in your mouth.
When you chew a DGL tablet:
- It Combines with Salivary Compounds: Chewing activates the extract by blending it with enzymes and salivary compounds (including natural epidermal growth factors) that signal your gut to begin mucosal defense.
- It Coats Your Esophagus on the Way Down: Swallowing the chewed tablet creates a direct herbal wash across the tissues of your throat and esophagus, providing immediate topical comfort before reaching the stomach.
- It Prepares Your Stomach for Meals: Chewing one tablet 20 minutes before breakfast, lunch, and dinner sets up a protective buffer right before digestive acids surge to break down your meal.
Is DGL Licorice Safe for Blood Pressure?
If you have researched licorice root, you may have read that it can raise blood pressure. That is a valid medical concern for unprocessed, whole licorice candy or raw herbal extracts, but it does not apply to DGL.
Raw licorice root contains an active compound known as glycyrrhizin (glycyrrhizic acid). When consumed in high amounts, glycyrrhizin blocks a kidney enzyme called 11-beta-HSD2. When that enzyme is blocked, your body holds onto sodium, flushes out potassium, and increases blood pressure.
The Deglycyrrhizination Advantage: Planetary Herbals removes the glycyrrhizin compound through a specialized water extraction and filtration process, reducing it to negligible traces. This preserves the beneficial, tissue-soothing flavonoids (such as liquiritin and isoliquiritigenin) while removing the component associated with hypertension and fluid retention.Clinical Research & Scientific Evidence
Planetary Herbals DGL Licorice is formulated in line with dosages and extraction methods examined in published gastrointestinal research:
- Support for Stomach & Intestinal Lining: Clinical investigations published in medical journals demonstrated that deglycyrrhizinated licorice promotes mucosal healing and supports the integrity of the stomach wall. In comparative trials, DGL supported gastric comfort as effectively as conventional acid-blocking agents without interrupting digestive pH balances (Morgan et al., Gut; Larkworthy & Holgate, The Practitioner).
- Relief from Dyspepsia & Digestive Discomfort: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trial, licorice extract significantly improved upper digestive symptom scores, including post-meal fullness, bloating, and upper abdominal burning, showing substantial benefit over placebo within 15 to 30 days (Raveendra et al., Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2012).
- Safety & Blood Pressure Verification: Comprehensive meta-analyses confirming licorice-induced blood pressure elevation show that adverse cardiovascular effects are driven strictly by glycyrrhizic acid, confirming that deglycyrrhizinated formulations eliminate this physiological pathway (Penninkilampi et al., Front Cardiovasc Med / Omar et al., 2019).
1. Morgan AG, et al. Comparison between cimetidine and deglycyrrhizinated liquorice in the treatment of ulceration. Gut, 1982.
2. Larkworthy W, Holgate PF. Deglycyrrhizinized liquorice in the treatment of gastric mucosal erosion. Practitioner, 1975; 215:787–792.
3. Raveendra KR, et al. An Extract of Glycyrrhiza glabra Alleviates Symptoms of Functional Dyspepsia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2012; 2012:235182.
4. Penninkilampi R, et al. The association between licorice consumption, hypertension, and hypokalemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 2017.