Can seaweed and licorice be used together?

Seaweed and licorice are both common and have certain medicinal value. Seaweed has a cold nature and has the effects of eliminating phlegm and toxins, softening and dispersing lumps, and invigorating Qi and strengthening the spleen and stomach. Licorice is also used in many medicines, and it has a good effect in treating coughs, colds, asthma, sore throats, heat toxins, etc. Some people use seaweed and licorice together to treat diseases. Can they be used together?

The pharmacological study of different proportions of licorice and seaweed has the following conclusions: 1) Seaweed and licorice, when mixed and decocted in a certain proportion, have the effect of inducing liver drug enzymes, and the decoction of the two separately has no effect on liver drug enzymes; 2) Seaweed itself has a certain degree of damage to the liver and kidney structure; 3) Seaweed and its combination with licorice mainly increase triiodothyronine (MAO) in serum; 4) Mice orally administered single licorice, seaweed and its combination with licorice in different proportions, when the dose reached more than 40g per kilogram of body weight, no death occurred, and there was no obvious toxic reaction; 5) The LD50 of single seaweed and its combination with licorice in 1:1, 1:2, 2:1 was injected intraperitoneally into mice with acute liver injury, and the mortality rate increased and the toxicity was significantly enhanced, indicating that it is not conducive to liver injury cases, and also indicating that in liver disease, the detoxification effect of drugs in each combination group and single drugs is reduced; 6) Mice injected intraperitoneally with seaweed and licorice in the range of 2:1 to 0.125:1 had obvious synergistic toxicity.

The toxicity of seaweed is significantly greater than that of licorice. Therefore, when two drugs are combined, if the toxicity is simply added, the toxicity of any combination ratio should be less than the toxicity of seaweed alone. The higher the proportion of seaweed, the closer the toxicity is to that of seaweed alone, and the toxicity should decrease as the amount of seaweed decreases. The experimental results show that when the ratio of seaweed to licorice is within the range of 2:1 to 0.125:1, the toxicity of the two drugs has a significant synergistic effect. Licorice, which is mainly used for detoxification in clinical practice, does not eliminate the toxicity of seaweed, but has a synergistic effect with it; adding a small amount of seaweed to licorice will actually increase its toxicity. This kind of "abnormal" phenomenon may be the main basis for being called "opposite".

It is not always true that seaweed and licorice have opposite effects when used together. Even if the dosage is within the dangerous range, it will not cause dangerous toxic reactions such as "death". The toxic reaction is not very severe. When seaweed and licorice are used together, within a certain range of compatibility, only the toxicity of seaweed is exerted, and this is precisely the function of seaweed. In clinical application, attention should be paid to the dosage ratio.