How Does Osha Root Work? What's Inside the Root and What Labs Found

Cut an osha root open and it smells of celery and butterscotch. The answer to "how does osha root work" starts with that smell. It comes from phthalides, aromatic compounds the plant stores in its roots, and chemists in El Paso, Mexico City and Sarajevo have been measuring them since 2008. Osha is Ligusticum porteri, a member of the carrot and parsley family that grows at 1,500 to 3,500 metres.

Osha root compounds, by the numbers

The best-known compound in the root is Z-ligustilide, which makes up between 0.15% and 2.5% of the dried root depending on the plant and where it grew. It belongs to the phthalides, the same family that gives lovage and celery their smell.

In 2020, Kemal Durić and colleagues at the University of Sarajevo ran dried roots of four related plants through a carbon dioxide extractor at 50°C. Ligusticum porteri gave the most oil of the four, 7.3 grams from every 100 grams of root. It also held the most ligustilide by weight, 0.27 grams per 100 grams of root, ahead of dong quai (Angelica sinensis) at 0.21 grams.

Rachel Mata's group at the National Autonomous University of Mexico took 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:

• Z-ligustilide
• (Z)-3-butylidenephthalide
• (Z)-6,6',7,3'α-diligustilide, two ligustilide molecules joined together
• myristicin, also found in nutmeg
• ferulic acid

When Elizabeth Pineda-Peña and colleagues analysed the root's volatile oil for a 2020 paper in the Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia, they identified 37 constituents. Butylidenephthalide was one of the two largest, at 20.54% of the oil.

Those oils are the sharp, celery-like bite you taste in a dropper of osha. The flavour and the chemistry are the same thing.

How does osha root work in the lab?

The study most people find first came out of the University of Texas at El Paso. In a 2008 master's thesis, Oscar Beltran tested three plants that families in northern Mexico use for tuberculosis and other chest infections. Osha was on the list because the Rarámuri use it this way.

Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the TB bacterium, the osha extract stopped more than 50% of growth at the lowest concentration tested, 5 micrograms per millilitre. It showed no toxicity to human U-937 cells until 50 to 100 micrograms per millilitre. Presenting the work in April 2009 with M. M. Weigel and Rodrigo Armijos, Beltran reported a therapeutic index above 10 for osha, and an MIC50 (the dose that stops half the growth) roughly half that of the other two plants. Our post on osha root and the lungs follows that thread further.

Mata's team tested the individual compounds in mice. Butylidenephthalide was the most active of the three phthalides: at 56.2 mg/kg it lowered blood glucose in diabetic mice after a sugar load, and it slowed the enzyme alpha-glucosidase in the test tube. Pineda-Peña's group gave rats a nanoemulsion of the root's oil before an ethanol challenge to the stomach. At 10 and 30 mg/kg they recorded gastroprotection of 72% and 92%, against 69% for the drug omeprazole.

Put together, the published work points at the phthalides. They are the compounds the labs isolated, and the ones that showed activity when tested on their own.

What the Zuni, Diné and Rarámuri used it for

The question searchers type most, "what does osha root help with", has older answers than any lab paper. They come from the peoples of the mountains where osha grows.

Zuni healers made an infusion of the root for body aches and used the crushed root in water as a wash for sore throats. They also chewed it during curing ceremonies. The Diné used it for a hoarse voice. In the Sierra Tarahumara of Northern Mexico, Rarámuri families, who call the plant wasía, brewed it as a tea for stomach pain and fever. Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico knew it as chuchupate. The Comanche used it for pneumonia. A piece of the root turned up in a Utah medicine bundle between 200 and 600 years old.

For the full history, region by region, see our complete guide to osha root.

Why osha goes into alcohol

Durić's team notes that ligustilide and most phthalides are relatively non-polar, the kind of oily molecule that mixes poorly with water. Alcohol dissolves those oils. A tincture is an alcohol extract, so the phthalides and aromatic oils move out of the root and into the liquid.

Water does a poor job of it. When Jia Lu and colleagues compared five ways of extracting dong quai, a ligustilide-rich cousin of osha, for a 2009 paper in Molecules, ligustilide could not be detected in the water decoction at all.

Ligustilide is also fragile once it is out of the plant. Light pushes it to pair up into diligustilide, and heat drives oxidation, so the bottle counts as much as the extract. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard, because it keeps visible light off what is inside, and that is what Bear Root comes in.

Bear Root as a daily ritual

Bear Root is osha root tincture from a mountain plant of Northern Mexico, in a 50 ml dropper bottle of dark Miron glass. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. The taste is earthy and warming, with that sharp, celery-like bite from the root.

People fit it into the day in a few ways. A dropper in morning tea before work, or in an evening cup once the day is done. A dropper in the water bottle after a hike or a run. Or straight under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallowed. The label recommendation is 1 to 2 droppers a day, so a bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, and it fits any time of year.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

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

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Why it's called bear root

The Lakota name for osha is mato tapejuta, bear medicine. The Diné say the bear gave them the plant. The story that goes with both names is that bears dig the root when they wake from hibernation and chew it.

The ethnobotanist Shawn Sigstedt saw a version of it himself. At a facility in Colorado Springs he gave osha root to two captive brown bears. The female chewed hers into a mash and rubbed it over her shoulders, chest and head. Later, a motion camera on his ranch near Steamboat Springs filmed two wild bears rubbing osha pulp onto a tree and then rubbing their bodies against the bark.

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

What is the active compound in osha root?

The best-studied is Z-ligustilide, at 0.15% to 2.5% of the dried root. UNAM researchers also isolated butylidenephthalide, diligustilide, myristicin and ferulic acid from it in 2010.

Why does osha root taste like celery?

Osha, celery and lovage share the same aromatic compounds, the phthalides. They give the root its sharp, celery-like bite.

Is osha root extract stronger than the dried root?

An alcohol extract pulls the oily phthalides out of the root, which water struggles to do. In dark Miron glass the extract stays protected from light, which breaks ligustilide down.

How do you take Bear Root?

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.

Is bear root the same as osha?

Yes. Bear root is a common name for osha, Ligusticum porteri, from the story of bears digging up and chewing the root.