Consuming mulethi during pregnancy may harm infant's brain, says study

New Delhi: Pregnant women, take note! A new study suggests that consuming large amounts of mulethi during pregnancy can be harmful for the development of your child.

In the study, youths that were exposed to large amounts of liquorice in the womb performed less well than others in cognitive reasoning tests carried out by a psychologist.

The difference was equivalent to about seven IQ points.

Those exposed to liquorice also performed less well in tasks measuring memory capacity and according to parental estimates, they had more ADHD-type problems than others. With girls, puberty had started earlier and advanced further.

Researchers, including those from the University of Helsinki in Finland, compared 378 youths of about 13 years whose mothers had consumed "large amounts" or "little/no" liquorice during pregnancy.

In the study a large amount was defined as over 500 milligrammes (mg) and little/no as less than 249 mg glycyrrhizin per week.

These cutoffs are not based on health effects. 500 mg glycyrrhizin corresponds on average to 250 grammes liquorice.

(With PTI inputs)