To evaluate the intrinsic quality of licorice influenced by environmental factors, the spectral comparisonof licorice from two typical ecological habitats was conducted by using FTIR and 2D-IR correlation spec-troscopy. There were differences in the peak intensities of 1155, 1076 and 1048 cm¹ of FTIR profiles. Thedifference was amplified by the second derivative spectrum for the peak intensities at 1370, 1365 and1317 cm¹ and the peak shape in 958–920 cm1and 1050–988 cm¹. The synchronous 2D-IR spectrawithin the range of 860–1300 cm¹ were classified into type I and type II and their frequency in thetwo groups was noticeably different. Although the chemical compounds of licorice samples from twoareas were generally similar, the contents of starch, calcium oxalate, and some chemical compounds con-taining alcohol hydroxyl group were different, indicating the influence of precipitation and temperature.This study demonstrates that the systematical analysis of FTIR, the second derivative spectrum and 2D-IR can effectively determine the differences in licorice samples from different ecological habitats.