Pregnant women who eat large amounts of licorice could negatively affect their child's intelligence and behavior, according to research.
Experts from Edinburgh and Helsinki universities studied eight-year-olds born in Finland, where consumption of licorice among young women is common.
The children of women who ate a lot of licorice when pregnant did not perform as well as other youngsters in tests.
Researchers said a component in licorice may impair the placenta.
They said the component - glycyrrhizin - may allow stress hormones to cross from the mother to the baby.
High levels of such hormones, known as glucocorticoids, are thought to affect fetal brain development and have been linked to behavioral disorders in children in previous studies.
Of the children who took part in the Finnish study, 64 were exposed to high levels of glycyrrhizin in licorice, 46 to moderate levels and 211 to low levels.
They were tested on a range of cognitive functions including vocabulary, memory and spatial awareness.
Behavior was assessed using an in-depth questionnaire completed by the mother.
The results suggested that women who ate more than 500mg of glycyrrhizin per week - found in the equivalent of 100g of pure licorice - were more likely to have children with lower intelligence levels and more behavioral problems.
The eight-year-olds were more likely to have poor attention spans and show disruptive behavior such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the researchers said.
The research comes after a study which suggested that licorice consumption was also linked to shorter pregnancies.
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