At a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on January 14, Deputy Prime Minister for Science and Education, Health and Sports Sapardurdy Toylyev reported on the construction of an enterprise for the production of glycyrrhizic acid, the state information agency TDH reports .
The official said that the construction tender announced in May last year was won by the private enterprise Mizemez gadam. Toylyev reported about this at the Cabinet of Ministers on December 17. This time, TDH noted that the conditions for the construction and technical equipment of the facility have already been established and agreed.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted the importance of increasing the production of export-oriented products in the country, including pharmaceuticals, and signed the relevant Decree . The document prescribes to start construction work in January 2022 and to hand over the enterprise with full readiness for operation in January 2024.
It is reported that the enterprise, which will be built in Turkmenabat, will produce 390 tons per year of unrefined glycyrrhizic acid from licorice root.
In December 2020, scientists at the Essen University Hospital put forward the theory that the glycyrrhizic acid contained in the licorice root neutralizes COVID-19, and five days later the president ordered this issue to be studied and the corresponding pharmaceutical enterprises to be built. After that, a large number of articles appeared in the state media about the benefits of licorice root and its coronavirus-destroying properties. In September, the pharmaceutical enterprise "Saglyk" of the Association "Türkmendermansenagat" launched the production of a certain drug from licorice root.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan