Glycyrrhiza lepidota be sweet and were used as food and for medicinal purposes by Native Americans. After eating a roasted root in 1806, Meriwether Lewis described an "agreeable flavour not unlike the sweet pittaitoe." American licorice is not sweet from sugar but from glycyrrhizin. Glycyrrhizin may increase blood pressure (aka hypertension) by interfering with cortisol conversion. The Zuni people chew the root to keep the mouth sweet and moist. American licorice is grazed by cattle, but not preferred and will increase under grazing as competing plants are grazed off. The new growth can be toxic. It has light green to white flowers
Plant sources of anti-cancer agents podophyllotoxin which is found in "Podophyllum peltatum" (May Apple). Chemicals extracted from clippings of "Taxus brevifolia" (Pacific yew) have been used as the basis for two chemotherapy drugs, docetaxel and paclitaxel. Contains ingenol mebutate (Picato) which is used to treat skin cancer Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) is an antibody conjugated to a synthetic derivative of the cytotoxic principle of the Ethiopian plant "Maytenus ovatus". It used to treat breast cancer. Plant sources of anti-cancer agents Plant sources of anti-cancer agents are plants, the derivatives of which have been shown to be usable for the treatment or prevention of cancer in humans.