Osha grows where the air is thin. Ligusticum porteri is a mountain plant, found from about 1,500 to 3,500 m, and the people who live and work at those heights have carried it for generations. Search "osha root for altitude sickness" and you land on that habit: a root that grows at altitude, kept in the pack of anyone heading up. Mara's Bear Root is that root as a tincture, from a mountain plant of Northern Mexico, in a 50 ml dropper bottle that rides in a hip-belt pocket from the trailhead to the summit.
Where osha grows
Osha is a member of the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae) and a relative of lovage. It needs deep, moist, organic soil and partial shade, and it is most common near the upper edge of the subalpine zone. In the south of its range it grows between 2,100 and 3,000 m. Further north, in Utah and Wyoming, it comes down to about 1,500 m. It also grows in the high mountains of Northern Mexico, where the Rarámuri call it wasía.
Almost every root on the market is wild-harvested, and plants are often more than 10 years old when they are dug. Attempts to grow it outside its mountain habitat have not taken.
Who carried osha at altitude
At least 15 tribes use osha, according to a 2022 report in Colorado's 5280 magazine. The Zuni gave it for body aches and sore throats. The Diné say the bear gave osha to them as a medicine, and the Lakota name, mato tapejuta, means bear medicine. Hispano ranchers in New Mexico call it chuchupate, and northern New Mexico families have harvested it for decades.
The altitude habit is written down most plainly by the herbalists who work in those mountains. 7Song, who has run the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine since 1992 and staffed first aid stations in remote places for over 40 years, lists high-altitude sickness under osha in his first aid notes and calls the root one of the most specific remedies for it. He records a day at a Rainbow Gathering high in the Wyoming Rockies, above 9,000 feet, when a forest fire broke out. Volunteers ran a bucket brigade, and afterward many of them were short of breath from smoke and height together. He handed out osha root to chew, and wrote that many of them felt considerably better, and quickly.
Martin Hansen of Herbalism Roots calls osha "a strong tonic for altitude sickness." In 2019, Debra Swanson of Dancing Willow Herbs wrote about adding osha to a high altitude formula alongside nettles and red root.
Osha stopped more than half the growth of the TB bacterium at the lowest concentration tested.
Osha root for altitude sickness, carried as a tincture
The old way was a piece of root in a pocket. The tincture does the same job in a form that suits a modern trip. Osha is a woody root with a strong taste, and a dropper bottle needs no knife, no chewing and no guesswork about how much you took. Each dropper is the same measure, and you know how much is left in the bottle.
The bottle is also the reason it keeps. Bear Root comes in dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, but dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and it is what Mara uses. A loose root dries out and loses its smell in a pack. A sealed tincture stays as it was the day it was bottled.
There is also the plant itself. Osha looks like poison hemlock, a deadly relative in the same family, so picking your own on the trail is a job for experts. United Plant Savers lists osha as At-Risk because wild stands are dug faster than they regrow. One bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at 1 to 2 droppers a day.
A dropper at the trailhead
The ritual is short. Park at the trailhead, lace up, fill the water bottle, then hold a dropper of Bear Root under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow. Or squeeze it straight into the water bottle and drink it on the switchbacks. The taste is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root, and it stays with you for the first few hundred metres of climbing.
It fits any trip that gains height, any month of the year. A summer hike up a fourteener. A climbing weekend. A road trip over a high pass. A flight into Cusco at about 3,350 m or La Paz at about 3,650 m, where you feel the height on the walk out of the airport. A second dropper fits at camp in the evening, stirred into a mug of tea.
Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico.
Add to bagFor the full story of the plant, from the bear legend to the Utah medicine bundle that held osha 200 to 600 years ago, read our guide to osha root. If your interest is breathing on the climb, we also wrote about osha root and the lungs.
Travel know-how for high places
Experienced mountain travellers plan their height gain. The CDC Yellow Book gives the standard numbers:
- Avoid going from below 1,200 m to a sleeping altitude of 2,750 m or more in a single day.
- Above 3,000 m, raise your sleeping altitude by no more than 500 m a day.
- Add an extra night for every 1,000 m of sleeping altitude you gain above that.
- Expect any symptoms to show 2 to 12 hours after arrival, often during or after the first night.
Mountain air is dry, so refill your water at every stream crossing and hut. Climb high in the day and sleep lower when the route allows it. If you feel worse as you go up, go down. 7Song puts it the same way in his notes: sometimes the answer is to descend, then come back up more slowly.
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 osha at altitude
Is Ligusticum porteri the same as osha?
Yes. Ligusticum porteri is the botanical name for osha, also sold as bear root, Colorado cough root and, in New Mexico, chuchupate.
Can I pick osha root on a hike?
Leave it in the ground. Osha looks like poison hemlock, and United Plant Savers lists it as At-Risk.
How do I take Bear Root on a high hike?
Hold a dropper under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or add it to your water bottle at the trailhead. Most people take 1 to 2 droppers a day.
What does osha tincture taste like?
Earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root.