الفهرس 
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Abstract
Asthma is a heterogeneous disease characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It is defined by the history of respiratory symptoms that vary overtime and in intensity, together with variable expiratory airflow limitation. The incidence of asthmatic disorders is increasing around the world and it is still increasing and only 50% of asthmatic patients achieve adequate control by the current therapies.
This study aimed to detect whether the addition of two different doses of liquorice extract to ICS/LABA combination would have a better impact on patients presented with moderate stable asthma than ICS/LABA combination alone. In addition, this study evaluated the safety of liquorice extract by estimation of its major side effects.
They were selected randomly from the outpatient clinic of the Cardiothoracic University Hospital, Minia University and they were suffering from moderate stable bronchial asthma and maintained on ICS/LABA combination excluding hypertensive patients, patients with liver diseases, heart diseases especially those taking digoxin, pregnant and lactating mothers, women taking oral contraceptives and patients taking drugs that cause hypokalemia as thiazide diuretics.
• Results:
Regarding liquorice efficacy:
• Blood and sputum eosinophils %
Addition of liquorice capsules ,in both doses (group 2 and 3), to ICS/LABA combination showed no significant reduction in both blood and sputum eosinophils % when compared with the reduction in case of ICS/LABA combination alone (group 1).
• Symptoms(Cough and wheeze)
The results of this study revealed no significant improvement in cough and wheeze on the use of liquorice in both doses, in addition to ICS/LABA combination, when compared with ICS/LABA combination alone (group 1).
• Dyspnea and ACT scores
This study results showed a significant reduction in dyspnea score and significant increase in ACT score on the use of liquorice in the lower dose in addition to ICS/LABA combination (group 2) when compared with the ICS/LABA comination alone (group 1) and increasing liquorice dose (group 3) had no additional effect on the dyspnea and ACT scores when compared with the lower dose (group 2).
• Pulmonary function
The use of liquorice in the lower dose in addition to ICS/LABA combination (group 2) resulted in a significant improvement in both FVC % and FEV1% when compared with the improvement in group 1. However, the increase in liquorice dose (group 3) added no additional improvement in FVC % and FEV1% when compared with the lower one (group 2).
Regarding liquorice safety:
The results of this study showed that the use of liqurice in lower dose (group 2) had no significant effect on SBP, DBP, pulse and serum K level, while increasing the liquorice dose (group 3) resulted in a significant elevation in SBP and DBP and significant reduction in serum K level with no significant effect on pulse after the four weeks of the study.