Kanzonol C has antimicrobial activity, it also shows potent PTP1B inhibitory activity (IC50 value of 0.31-0.97uM). Kanzonol C has chemopreventive activity,it shows the inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 secretion from brain tumor-derived glioblastoma cells.

Based on the bioactivities of licorice, these compounds were screened using cell- or enzyme-based bioassay methods. A total of 11 compounds exhibited potent cytotoxic activities against three human cancer cell lines (HepG2, SW480 and MCF7), while showed little toxicity on human normal cell lines LO2 and HEK293T. A number of chalcones showed remarkable anti-inflammatory activities. Among them, 2 (licochalcone B, IC50 8.78μM), 10 (licoagrochalcone C, IC50 9.35μM) and 13 (licochalcone E, IC50 9.09μM) exhibited the most potent inhibitory activities on LPS-induced NO production, whereas 1, 8, 10, 12 and 13 (IC50 13.9, 7.27, 2.44, 6.67 and 3.83μM) showed potent inhibitory activities on NF-κB transcription[1]