Ligusticum chuanxiong and osha (Ligusticum porteri) carry the same genus name and share a family with lovage, celery and parsley. One is a farmed rhizome from the plains of Sichuan, sold by the kilo to Chinese herbal pharmacies. The other is a wild root dug on mountain slopes in Northern Mexico and further north. People who see "Ligusticum" on both an osha bottle and a Chinese herb list often ask whether the two are interchangeable. They are separate plants with separate histories.
Two plants, one genus
Ligusticum is a genus in the Apiaceae, the carrot and parsley family. Osha is Ligusticum porteri, and among the dozen or so Ligusticum species, it is the one herbalists mean when they say "true" osha. Chuanxiong (川芎, also written chuan xiong) is the Chinese name for the rhizome sold as Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. Kew's Plants of the World Online now files it as a cultivar, Conioselinum anthriscoides 'Chuanxiong', and some older books call it Ligusticum striatum or L. wallichii. Herb traders and the ISO standard published in March 2024 (ISO 8071:2024) still use Ligusticum chuanxiong, so that is the name you will see on bags and in shops. In English it goes by Sichuan lovage or Chinese lovage.
Where Ligusticum chuanxiong grows
Chuanxiong has no known wild populations. It stopped setting seed long ago and is grown only from cuttings, and farmers around Dujiangyan in Sichuan keep it going with a method recorded since the Song dynasty, about 800 years ago. A 2021 paper by Kang and colleagues in Frontiers in Plant Science describes the cycle. Each January or February, farmers dig young rhizomes from plain fields at 400 to 600 m and carry them up to mountain nurseries at 1,000 to 1,500 m. There the plants grow swollen stem nodes, called lingzi, which are cut in late July and replanted on the plain. The rhizomes dug from those plain fields the following summer are what ends up in the pharmacy.
The Sichuan link is in the name. A 2022 review of classical texts in the Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae notes that the herb was first recorded as xiongqiong in the Shennong Bencaojing. Tang dynasty writers praised the crop from Tianshui in Gansu. From the Song dynasty on, physicians preferred the Sichuan crop, and the name became chuan (Sichuan) xiong.
Osha stopped more than half the growth of the TB bacterium at the lowest concentration tested.
Where osha grows
Osha is the opposite case. It grows wild in high mountain meadows and forest edges at 1,500 to 3,500 m, from the Sierra Madre of Northern Mexico up into the Rocky Mountains. Mara's Bear Root comes from a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. Almost all osha on the market is wild-harvested, and the roots are often more than 10 years old when they are dug. United Plant Savers lists osha as "At-Risk", and because it looks like poison hemlock, digging it is work for people who know the plant.
How each one is used in its own tradition
In Chinese herbal medicine, chuanxiong is one of the 50 fundamental herbs. Texts describe it as acrid (or pungent) and warm in nature, assigned to the liver, gallbladder and pericardium channels, and it appears in classical formulas such as Siwu Decoction and Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition) sets a quality standard for the dried rhizome, with ferulic acid at no less than 0.01%.
Osha's history belongs to the peoples of the mountains where it grows. Rarámuri families in Northern Mexico brewed the root as a tea for stomach pain and fever. The Zuni used it for sore throats and body aches. Diné healers credit the medicine to the bear, and the Lakota name, mato tapejuta, means "bear medicine". A piece of osha turned up in a Utah medicine bundle dated to between 200 and 600 years old. The bear story has a modern observer too. Shawn Sigstedt watched Kodiak bears chew the root and rub it into their fur.
Z-ligustilide, the compound they share
Both roots smell strongly of celery and lovage, and much of that smell comes from Z-ligustilide, a phthalide found across this part of the carrot family. In osha, Z-ligustilide makes up 0.15 to 2.5% of the root. A 2020 study by Durić and colleagues in the Bulletin of Chemists and Technologists of Bosnia and Herzegovina measured it at 3.74% of the essential oil distilled from Ligusticum porteri root.
For chuanxiong, the published picture is about timing. Li, Lin and Tam (Planta Medica, 2006) tracked Z-ligustilide in the rhizome through a full growing cycle and found that it rose from October, peaked in mid-April, dipped, and rose again from mid-May until the end-of-May harvest.
Taste
Chuanxiong is described in Chinese herb references as bitter and acrid with a slightly sweet finish and a strong aromatic smell. Osha is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root. Side by side, chuanxiong is the more bitter, and osha leans savory, closer to celery seed.
How each is sold
Chuanxiong is sold as a crude herb. The whole dried rhizome is a knobby, fist-sized mass 2 to 7 cm across. Pharmacies soften it, cut it into thick slices called chuanxiongpian, and sometimes stir-fry the slices with yellow wine (jiuchuanxiong). ISO 8071:2024 covers both the whole rhizome and the cut decoction pieces in international trade. Most of it goes into multi-herb formulas mixed by a practitioner.
Osha reaches most people as a tincture. Dried osha root is hard and woody. An alcohol extract carries the root's aromatic compounds in a liquid you can measure by the dropper, and a sealed dark bottle keeps light and air off them. If you are comparing bottles, dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. The gold standard is dark Miron glass, which is what Mara uses.
Why someone after the mountain root picks Bear Root
If you came to this page wanting the North American and Mexican mountain cousin, the plant the Rarámuri and Lakota named, chuanxiong is a different plant from a different place. Bear Root is wild Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico, made as a tincture. It tastes earthy and warming with that celery-like bite. Most people take 1 to 2 droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and then swallowed, or stirred into morning tea, or into a water bottle after a hike or run. At that rate a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days. The ingredients are simple: premium quality extract, in dark Miron glass.
For more on the plant itself, read our full guide to osha root. If you have seen "bear root" and "osha" on different labels, bear root vs osha root explains why they are the same plant.
Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.
Add to bagBear Root considerations
Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.
Questions people ask
Is chuanxiong the same as osha?
No. Chuanxiong is a farmed rhizome from Sichuan, China, and osha is Ligusticum porteri, a wild root of the mountains of Northern Mexico and the Rockies. Both are lovage relatives in the carrot family.
What is chuan xiong in English?
Sichuan lovage or Chinese lovage. The trade name is Ligusticum chuanxiong, and Kew now lists the plant as Conioselinum anthriscoides 'Chuanxiong'.
How many Ligusticum species are there?
Counts vary as botanists move species between genera, and herbal references often cite about a dozen in use. Osha (L. porteri) and the plant sold as chuanxiong are the two best known.
Does osha contain ligustilide?
Yes. Z-ligustilide makes up 0.15 to 2.5% of osha root, and Durić and colleagues (2020) measured it at 3.74% of osha root essential oil.