What's Inside Ligusticum Porteri, the Celery-Scented Root Bears Chew

In 2020, Kemal Durić and colleagues at the University of Sarajevo put dried roots of four related plants through a low-temperature carbon dioxide extractor and weighed what came out. Ligusticum porteri gave the most oil of the four, 7.3 grams from every 100 grams of root, and the most ligustilide by weight. Ligusticum porteri is the Latin name for osha, the plant sold as Bear Root, and this page is about the species itself: what the root holds, what labs in Texas, Mexico City and Sarajevo have measured, and what the people who lived beside it recorded.

Ligusticum porteri in brief

The botanists John Merle Coulter and Joseph Nelson Rose described the species and named it for Thomas Conrad Porter (1822 to 1901), a botanist and clergyman. It belongs to Apiaceae, the carrot and parsley family, and its nearest familiar relative is garden lovage.

Osha grows high, at roughly 1,500 to 3,500 metres, in the mountains of Northern Mexico and in high ranges further north. The plant depends on mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, and attempts to grow it away from its native habitat have failed. Almost all of it is wild-harvested, many plants are more than 10 years old when they are dug, and United Plant Savers lists it as "At-Risk". Above ground it looks a lot like poison hemlock, which keeps the digging in the hands of people who know the plant.

What is in Ligusticum porteri root?

Most of the root's character comes from phthalides, a group of aromatic compounds that also give celery and lovage their smell. The best known is Z-ligustilide, which makes up 0.15 to 2.5% of the root depending on the plant and where it grew. Durić's team measured 0.27 grams of ligustilide per 100 grams of root, and 3.74% ligustilide in the oil itself.

Rachel Mata's group at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has spent more than a decade taking the root apart compound by compound. In a 2010 paper in the Journal of Natural Products, Fernando Brindis, Robert Bye, Mata and colleagues isolated five compounds from the root:

• Z-ligustilide
• 3-(Z)-butylidenephthalide
• (Z)-6,6',7,3'α-diligustilide, a paired form of ligustilide
• myristicin, also found in nutmeg
• ferulic acid, which the authors describe as abundant in the extract

A 2012 study in Plant Growth Regulation by Dalia Goldhaber-Pasillas, Bye, Mata and colleagues analysed eight-month-old roots grown in a greenhouse. Butylidenephthalide was the main phthalide at about 20.8% of the extract, alongside apiol (23.51%) and falcarinol (17.56%). When Elizabeth Pineda-Peña and colleagues steam-distilled the root's volatile oil in 2020, they identified 37 constituents, with (Z)-3-butylidenephthalide again among the two largest at 20.54%.

That chemistry is what you taste. The celery-like bite in a dropper of osha comes from the same family of compounds a chemist reads off a GC-MS chart.

Ligusticum porteri medicinal uses in the historical record

Long before anyone ran the root through a spectrometer, the peoples of these mountains had names and uses for it. Zuni healers made an infusion of the root for body aches and used it as a wash for sore throats. The Diné credit the medicine to the bear, and the Lakota name, mato tapejuta, means bear medicine. In the Sierra Tarahumara of Northern Mexico, Rarámuri families brewed it as a tea for stomach pain and fever. A piece of the root turned up in a Utah medicine bundle between 200 and 600 years old.

The ethnobotanist Shawn Sigstedt watched captive bears chew osha root and rub the mash into their fur.

For the full cultural history, from New Mexico's chuchupate to the Comanche, see our complete guide to osha root.

What researchers have found in the lab

The best-known study came from the University of Texas at El Paso. In his 2008 master's thesis, Oscar Beltran tested three plants used in Northern Mexico against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the TB bacterium, and chose osha because the Rarámuri use it for chest infections. Ligusticum porteri stopped more than half of the bacterium's growth at the lowest concentration tested, 5 µg/ml. It showed no toxicity to human U-937 cells until 50 to 100 µg/ml. Presenting the work in Istanbul in 2009 with M. M. Weigel and Rodrigo Armijos, Beltran reported a therapeutic index above 10 for osha, with an MIC50 about half that of the other two plants.

Mata's group has run animal work on the root's compounds:

• Brindis and colleagues (2010) recorded lower blood glucose in normal and diabetic mice given the root extract by mouth. Butylidenephthalide was the most active compound, at 56.2 mg/kg after a sugar load.
• Josué Velázquez-Moyado and colleagues reported in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2015) on diligustilide from the root and ethanol-induced stomach lesions in rats.
• Pineda-Peña and colleagues (2020) gave rats a nanoemulsion of the root's volatile oil. At 10 and 30 mg/kg they recorded gastroprotection of 72% and 92%, against 69% for the drug omeprazole.

Why the root goes into alcohol

Ligustilide is a fragile molecule. Durić's paper reviews what breaks it down: light pushes it to pair up into diligustilide, and heat drives oxidation and other changes. One study it cites found ligustilide stable inside the plant and inside its oil, then highly unstable once pulled out on its own.

Z-ligustilide is an oil, and Cayman Chemical's data sheet for the pure compound lists it as miscible in ethanol, mixing in any proportion. The same sheet marks it light sensitive. A tincture (an alcohol extract) is the practical way to pull those aromatic compounds out of a dense, woody root and hold them. The extraction happens once, the compounds stay in solution, and the bottle stays closed between doses. A dropper measures the same amount every time.

Glass decides how well that liquid keeps. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, and the gold standard is dark Miron glass, which is what Mara uses. It keeps light off the extract from the first dropper to the last.

Bear Root is Ligusticum porteri, in a dropper

Bear Root is osha root tincture made from Ligusticum porteri, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. It comes in a 50 ml bottle of dark Miron glass.

The taste is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root, the phthalides from the lab reports in their everyday form. Take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. People add it to a morning or evening tea, or to a water bottle after a hike or a run, any time of year. A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at that rate.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

50 ml dropper bottle. Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.

Add to bag

Our guide to choosing an osha root tincture goes through the label and bottle checks one at a time.

Bear Root considerations

Contains alcohol. Not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask about Ligusticum porteri

Is Ligusticum porteri the same as osha?

Yes. Ligusticum porteri is the botanical name for osha, also called bear root, Porter's lovage and chuchupate.

What is the main compound in Ligusticum porteri root?

Z-ligustilide is the best-known compound, at 0.15 to 2.5% of the root. Butylidenephthalide, diligustilide, myristicin and ferulic acid have also been isolated from it.

Why does Ligusticum porteri osha smell like celery?

Osha and celery share a family of aromatic compounds called phthalides. Ligustilide and butylidenephthalide give the root its sharp, celery-like edge.

How do people take Ligusticum porteri today?

Most take it as a tincture. With Bear Root that means 1 to 2 droppers a day, under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds or stirred into a drink.