Osha Root, the Mountain Plant Called Bear Root

Osha root is the root of Ligusticum porteri, a tall mountain plant in the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae) and a close relative of garden lovage. Across Northern Mexico and the high ranges further north, many of the people who dig it call it by a second name, bear root. The name comes from bears, and one ethnobotanist in Colorado watched them earn it.

What is osha root?

Osha is a perennial that usually grows 50 to 130 cm tall, and big stands can reach about 2 metres. The leaves look like flat-leaf parsley, often with a reddish tint at the base where they meet the stem. In summer the plant carries double umbels of small white flowers, the same flat-topped heads you see on dill or fennel.

The part people want sits underground. Herbalists and cooks use the dried root, and a tincture is made by extracting the root in alcohol. The leaves and seeds are rarely sold.

Osha, bear root, chuchupate and other names

"Osha" (also written oshá) is the most common English name. Wikipedia's entry lists many others, including Porter's lovage, mountain lovage, wild celery, wild parsley and loveroot. Spanish speakers in Mexico and New Mexico call it chuchupate, with local spellings such as chuchupaste, chuchupastle and chuchufate. The Rarámuri name is wasía, and the Akimel O'odham name is jujubáádi.

The Lakota name is mato tapejuta, which translates as bear medicine. Other nations use names that carry the same idea, such as "gift of the bear" and "the plant that the bear knows."

Where osha grows, and how high

Osha is a high-country plant, growing at roughly 1,500 to 3,500 metres. Mara's Bear Root comes from the mountains of Northern Mexico. The same species also grows further north along the Rocky Mountains, where Wikipedia records it from about 2,100 to 3,000 metres in the southern part of that range and as low as 1,500 metres in Utah and Wyoming.

The University of Kansas native plants program gives a preferred band of 9,500 to 11,500 feet (about 2,900 to 3,500 metres) and notes that osha is often found in or near groves of aspen, conifer, fir and oak. Growing seasons that high are short, and a plant takes years to build a root worth digging. Roots are often more than 10 years old when they're harvested.

Why is it called bear root?

In 1994, National Wildlife magazine reported on the work of ethnobotanist Shawn Sigstedt, who offered Ligusticum porteri root to Kodiak brown bears at a zoo in Colorado Springs. The bears chewed the root into a paste and rubbed it over their faces and fur. On his own land near Steamboat Springs, Sigstedt also filmed wild black bears rubbing osha pulp onto a tree trunk and then rubbing their bodies against the bark.

The Diné (Navajo) tell the story from the other direction. As Sigstedt put it to the Steamboat Pilot, they believe the creator, through the bear, gave the Navajo the knowledge of osha and how to use it. The Mara product page keeps the short version: bears dig up the root and chew it.

What the root looks and smells like

A freshly dug osha root has dark chocolate-brown, wrinkled skin, with hair-like fibres around the crown where old leaf stalks have broken down. Cut it open and the inside is yellowish, with a soft, soapy pith at the centre.

The smell is the first thing most people notice. It's strongly of celery, with a sweet note that Wikipedia compares to butterscotch. The whole plant smells of celery, most of all after the first frosts of autumn.

Taste

The University of Kansas page quotes a description of the flavour as a "pungent cross of flavors reminiscent of celery and licorice." In New Mexico the root has been used in the kitchen to season meat, beans and chile. As a tincture, Mara's Bear Root tastes earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root.

How named peoples have used osha

The oldest evidence is physical. Osha root has been found in a medicine bundle in Utah dated at 200 to 600 years old.

The written record is long and specific to each people. Zuni healers chewed the root during curing ceremonies, made an infusion of it for body aches, and used crushed root in water as a wash and a drink for sore throat. Diné families used it for a hoarse voice and for colds. The Southern Ute used it for colds and flu and for spiritual protection. Comanche use for pneumonia is also recorded.

In Northern Mexico, Rarámuri families brewed the root as a tea for stomach pain and fever, and they also used it for tuberculosis, diarrhea and in healing ceremonies. Mexican researchers note that its use for the stomach has since spread across the whole country. In New Mexico, Hispanic families made chuchupate tea for colds and sore throats, and the University of Kansas page notes that place names referring to the plant appear only in New Mexico, close to Hispanic communities. Because so much of this record concerns breath, throat and winter illness, we've gathered it separately in what tradition records about osha root for lungs.

Forms you can buy

• Dried root, whole or cut into pieces. It keeps a strong celery smell.
• Tea, made by steeping or simmering the cut root in hot water.
• Tincture, an alcohol extract of the root, taken by the dropper.

If you're comparing bottles, our guide to choosing the best osha root tincture goes through what a label should state, and where to buy osha root covers the places it's sold and the red flags to watch for.

Mara's Bear Root is an osha root tincture made from Ligusticum porteri, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. It comes in a 50 ml dropper bottle. Take 1 to 2 droppers a day and hold them under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds before swallowing, or stir them into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. At that rate a bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

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

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Osha root benefits

People who search for osha root benefits want to know what the root is known for. For generations, Native American and Mexican communities have kept it for the throat, the voice and winter colds, and among a number of Indigenous communities it's common knowledge that osha supports the lungs. That's the reputation behind every name it carries, from bear medicine to Colorado cough root.

The root's chemistry carries the character those traditions describe. It contains Z-ligustilide at 0.15 to 2.5% of the root, a compound it shares with its relative lovage, and an aromatic oil that gives osha its strong celery-and-spice smell.

What researchers have found so far

Scientists in Mexico and the US have started testing the uses Indigenous families recorded, and the results so far back them up. The studies are lab and animal work, and several are striking.

• Stomach. In 2015, Velázquez-Moyado and colleagues found diligustilide, a compound from the root, protected the stomach lining of rats against alcohol damage at 10 mg/kg about as well as the drug carbenoxolone did at 30 mg/kg. In 2020, Pineda-Peña's team found a preparation of osha root oil gave 92% protection, against 69% for omeprazole.
• Pain. Déciga-Campos and colleagues found in 2005 that an osha root extract cut pain responses in mice. In 2014, Juárez-Reyes and colleagues tested the root extract, its oil and its three main compounds, and every one of them had a significant effect in both of the pain tests they used.
• Chest infections. A 2008 University of Texas at El Paso study grew the tuberculosis bacterium with an extract of the root the Rarámuri use for TB. Osha stopped more than half of the growth at the lowest concentration tested.
• Resistant bacteria. In 2005, osha root oil made the antibiotic norfloxacin two to four times more effective against a staph strain that had become resistant to it.

Osha root tea benefits

Tea is one of the most common traditional ways of taking osha. Both the Rarámuri and the New Mexican chuchupate traditions are teas, brewed through the winter for colds and sore throats. To make a cup from a tincture, here is how to make bear root tea.

Why osha is scarce

Almost all osha on the market is wild-harvested. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia reports that attempts to cultivate it have had limited success, since the plant sets few seeds and grows through short alpine seasons. Each harvested root represents a plant that often took a decade or more to grow.

United Plant Savers puts osha on its At-Risk list. In 1999 the US Forest Service placed a three-year moratorium on harvesting it, and Colorado limits collection to 10 pounds (about 4.5 kg) per person, with a permit.

Why non-experts shouldn't dig it

Osha looks a lot like poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and water hemlock (Cicuta), and both of those are deadly. They share parsley-like leaves and white flower umbels. Experienced harvesters tell them apart by the spicy celery smell of osha root, the hairy crown and the dark, wrinkled skin. Poison hemlock contains coniine, which can be absorbed through the skin, so handling the wrong plant is a risk in itself. Several other Ligusticum species share the osha name, a mix-up explained in bear root vs osha root.

Osha root considerations

The Bear Root product page carries one recommendation. It contains alcohol and is not recommended during pregnancy. If you're nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask about osha

Is bear root the same as osha root?

Yes. Both names refer to Ligusticum porteri. Osha is the most common English name, and bear root comes from the stories of bears digging and chewing the root.

What does osha root taste like?

Earthy and sharp, with a strong celery flavour. Some people also pick up a sweet note they compare to licorice or butterscotch.

Can osha be grown in a garden?

Growers have tried with limited success. The plant needs high mountain conditions and years to form a usable root, which is why nearly all supply is wild-harvested.

Has osha root been studied?

Yes, in lab and animal studies. Researchers have tested it on stomach lining, pain and bacteria, including the tuberculosis bacterium the Rarámuri traditionally used it against.

Is osha related to lovage?

Yes. Both belong to the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae), and osha is sometimes sold as Porter's lovage or mountain lovage.

Where does Mara's Bear Root come from?

From the mountains of Northern Mexico. It's sold as a 50 ml tincture.