EXCESSIVE ingestion of licorice may result in sodium and water retention, hypertension, hypokalemia, and suppression of the renin-aldosterone system.
1 ,
2
...He was admitted to our clinic to be evaluated for possible mineralocorticoid excess due to factors other than aldosterone. Further history taking, however, revealed that he had been eating 60 to 100 g of licorice candies, each weighing 2.5 g (Panda, Vaajakoski, Finland), daily for the past four to five years...
Stewart et al.
4 have proposed that licorice acts by inhibiting Cortisol oxidase, a component of the widely distributed 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase system that converts Cortisol to cortisone, producing a state of apparent mineralocorticoid excess similar to that in children with 11/3-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency
5
Epstein et al.
9 studied several subjects with a history of chronic licorice ingestion and found that the renin-aldosterone axis was suppressed while the subjects were taking licorice, but normal function resumed within two to four months after licorice was discontinued.
Licorice-Induced Hypermineralocorticoidism
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199110243251706#t=article