Osha Root for Bronchitis (What Tradition and the Lab Record)

People search osha root for bronchitis because the plant's oldest records sit almost entirely in the chest and throat. Osha (Ligusticum porteri) is a mountain root in the carrot and parsley family, and one of its English folk names is Colorado cough root. Lakota, Comanche, Rarámuri and New Mexican Hispanic families all wrote it into their respiratory medicine, and a 2008 lab study at the University of Texas at El Paso tested it against the bacterium behind tuberculosis.

The root was boiled into broth, brewed as tea and burned for its smoke long before anyone bottled it. For the plant's full background, see our osha root guide.

Osha root bronchitis use, people by people

Most of what is written down about osha and the chest comes from a handful of peoples who lived near where it grows. Natasha Myhal's 2017 master's thesis at the University of Kansas gathered their uses into one table, drawing on elders' interviews and a century of ethnobotany. These are the respiratory entries.

• Lakota. The Lakota name is mato tapejuta, "the bear's medicine." Myhal, citing Schneider (2017), records the Lakota using the root for fevers, bronchitis and headaches, and burning it to breathe the smoke for the sinuses.
• Comanche. Sanapia, a Comanche medicine woman, told the anthropologist David Jones (1972) that the root could be boiled into a thick broth for people with pneumonia.
• Rarámuri (Tarahumara) of Northern Mexico. Their name for it is wasía. Myhal's table lists it for pneumonia and headaches, citing Irigoyen-Rascón and Paredes (2015) and Wyndham (2009), and families brewed it as a tea for fever.
• Hispanic New Mexico. Ranchers call it chuchupate. Myhal lists it for colds and "loosening phlegm in lung infections" (Ford 1975; Curtin 1976), and Hispanic families also reached for it for sore throats, flu and coughs.
• Cochití and Taos Pueblo. The same phlegm and lung use is recorded for both pueblos (Moore 1977). At Cochití, Curtin (1947) wrote that a bean-sized piece of root was taken to get rid of a cough.
• Diné (Navajo). Arnold Clifford, interviewed for the thesis, described the root being used for "a gravelly voice or colds." The Diné credit the medicine to the bear.
• Mescalero Apache and Ute. Hrdlicka (1890) recorded Apache use of the root for colds and coughs. McBeth (2008) lists Ute use for upper respiratory infections.

The habit is old. A root identified as osha was found in the Patterson Bundle, a leather medicine satchel from Utah dated to between 200 and 600 years ago.

What herbalists wrote about osha and the chest

Modern herbalists in the region picked up where these families left off. The Southwest herbalist Michael Moore listed osha for acute bronchial pneumonia, and the osha entry on Encyclopedia.com describes it as an expectorant used for coughs and bronchial infections.

The herbalist Christopher Hobbs places bronchitis and pneumonia among osha's respiratory uses in his herb database and calls it a "warming respiratory stimulant." Yarnell (2006), cited in Naturopathic Doctor News and Review, grouped osha with its relative oshala as a root used for respiratory infections, indicated for "debility with copious amounts of mucus and congestion."

The trade followed the herbalists. West and Jackson (2004) wrote that osha's main commercial use is for bronchitis, influenza and other respiratory problems, and the American Herbal Products Association counted 5,200 kg of dried root harvested in 1999 alone.

The 2008 tuberculosis study at UTEP

Oscar Beltran's 2008 master's thesis at the University of Texas at El Paso tested three plants that families in northern Mexico and the borderlands had used for tuberculosis. Osha, under its local name chuchupaste, was one of them. The other two were gordolobo and cuachalalate.

Beltran ran root extracts against Mycobacterium tuberculosis alongside three standard TB drugs as controls (isoniazid, rifampin and ethambutol). He reported that osha stopped more than half the growth of the bacterium at the lowest concentration tested.

Z-ligustilide, the compound chemists measure

The root's smell (celery and butterscotch, by most descriptions) comes from compounds called phthalides. In 2012 I. Rivero, R. Bye, R. Mata and colleagues published an HPLC method in the Journal of AOAC International to measure the two main ones in osha root and its products. Z-ligustilide came out as the larger of the two, at 0.15 to 2.5% of the samples they tested.

A University of Kansas harvest study (Kindscher and colleagues, 2013) cites Rivero et al. (2012) for 31 volatile compounds in the root's oil, with phthalides making up 44.61% of it.

Why most people take osha as an extract

Osha grows high, at roughly 1,500 to 3,500 m, and almost all of it is wild. Plants are often more than 10 years old when they're dug, and United Plant Savers lists osha as "At-Risk." Above all, it looks like poison hemlock, a deadly plant in the same family. A wrong guess with a digging stick is a serious mistake, so a correctly identified extract from a supplier you trust is the sensible way in.

An extract also skips the work. A dropper under the tongue takes 30 seconds. Stirred into morning tea or a water bottle after a run, it reads as an earthy, warming drink with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root. A sealed bottle keeps the Z-ligustilide and the other aromatic compounds away from air and light, which dried root on a shelf can't do. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction for that. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and it is what Mara uses.

How Bear Root fits in

Bear Root is Mara's osha tincture: Ligusticum porteri, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico, the same country where the Rarámuri brewed their wasía tea. It comes in a 50 ml dark Miron glass dropper bottle. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

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. At that rate a bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, and people keep it as a daily ritual any time of year, in the evening tea or in the bag they take hiking. If your question is wider than the chest, our post on osha root for the lungs covers the breathing side of the record.

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

Who used osha root for bronchitis?

The Lakota are recorded using it for bronchitis (Schneider 2017). Comanche and Rarámuri sources record it for pneumonia, and Hispanic New Mexicans and the Cochití and Taos pueblos used it for loosening phlegm in lung infections.

Is bear root the same as osha?

Yes. Bear root is a common name for osha, Ligusticum porteri, after the story that bears dig up the root and chew it when they wake from hibernation. The Lakota name, mato tapejuta, means the bear's medicine.

What does osha root tincture taste like?

Earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite. Many people stir it into tea or juice rather than taking it straight.

Why not dig osha root yourself?

Osha looks like poison hemlock, a deadly relative in the same plant family. A correctly identified extract removes that risk, and the plant is listed as At-Risk by United Plant Savers.