Osha Root in Chinese (Its Name and Its TCM Relatives)

Osha root in Chinese has no settled common name. No Chinese herbal text, pharmacopoeia or dictionary we could find gives Ligusticum porteri its own characters. Chinese Wikipedia lists it in English letters, as "Osha (herb)". What Chinese does have is a name for its genus, 藁本属 (gǎoběn shǔ), and two well known herbs in that family line: 川芎 (chuānxiōng) and 藁本 (gǎoběn). If you came here from Chinese medicine, those two names are your way in.

What is osha root in Chinese?

The closest accurate answer is a description. Osha is a Ligusticum, and Chinese botany calls Ligusticum 藁本属, the gaoben genus. So in Chinese terms osha is a North American member of the gaoben group. A Chinese speaker who knows herbs will place it from that one word faster than from any transliteration.

In Chinese, the word OSHA usually means 美國職業安全衛生署, the US workplace safety agency. On the Chinese Wikipedia page that sorts out its meanings, the herb sits in a list with the safety law and a Russian river (奧沙河).

Why Chinese Wikipedia files it under the dang gui genus

That same Chinese Wikipedia line describes osha as 一種當歸屬的多年生植物, "a perennial plant of the 當歸屬", which is the Angelica genus, home of dang gui. That is a slip. Osha is Ligusticum porteri, not an Angelica. The mix-up is easy to forgive, because both genera sit in the carrot and parsley family (Apiaceae, 伞形科 in Chinese) and their roots smell alike. It also shows that even Chinese reference pages have not pinned the plant down.

Osha's other names have no Chinese form either. In English it goes by bear root, Porter's lovage and mountain lovage. Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico call it chuchupate. The Rarámuri of Northern Mexico call it wasía. Several Southwestern peoples called it the "gift of the bear", a phrase the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia repeated in its 2018 osha monograph. None of these has a standard Chinese rendering.

Osha root in TCM

Osha is not part of the classical Chinese materia medica. It grows on the other side of the Pacific, at 1,500 to 3,500 m, and Chinese doctors never had it to work with. Its Chinese relatives have been on the shelf for close to two thousand years. These are the two a TCM reader will know.

川芎 chuanxiong

Chuanxiong is the dried rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. It is native to Sichuan (the 川 in its name), and a 2025 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology notes it was first written down in the Shennong Bencao Jing, the oldest Chinese materia medica. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition, Volume I) lists it under that Latin name. The same review counted 17 Chinese patent medicines registered with China's drug regulator that use chuanxiong as the main ingredient.

Botanists have since moved it. The accepted view now classes chuanxiong as a cultivated form of Ligusticum sinense, filed as Conioselinum anthriscoides 'Chuanxiong'. Chinese Wikipedia notes the odd result that the gaoben genus no longer holds gaoben itself. The pharmacopoeia still uses the old Ligusticum name.

藁本 gaoben

Gaoben, sold in English as Chinese lovage, is the dried rhizome and root of two species: Ligusticum sinense Oliv. (藁本) and Ligusticum jeholense Nakai et Kitag. (遼藁本, Liaoning gaoben). Hong Kong's Chinese Materia Medica Standards, volume 6, sets the harvest: dug in autumn after the stems wither, or in early spring before new shoots, then dried at no more than 50°C. TCM texts describe its taste as pungent and its nature as warm.

A 2022 study of classical formulas in the Chinese Journal of Experimental Traditional Medical Formulae found that "Ligustici Rhizoma et Radix" was the correct name for gaoben in every dynasty, despite a long list of local aliases. Only after 1949 were L. sinense and L. jeholense confirmed as the original plants.

One compound runs through all three roots

The family resemblance is chemical as well as botanical. Chuanxiong, gaoben and osha all carry Z-ligustilide, a phthalide that gives these roots their celery-like, lovage-like smell. In Mexico, Rivero, Bye, Mata and colleagues at UNAM built a test for osha's two main phthalides (Journal of AOAC International, 2012). Across root and products from Mexico and the United States, Z-ligustilide ran from 0.15% to 2.5%. Phthalides made up 44.61% of the root's essential oil, among 31 compounds identified.

A 2020 study from the University of Sarajevo measured ligustilide in the root oils of four related plants side by side:

• Angelica sinensis (dang gui): 14.56%
• Ligusticum striatum: 6.61%
• Ligusticum porteri (osha): 3.74%
• Ligusticum sinense (gaoben): 1.16%

Osha's oil held more than three times the ligustilide of gaoben's in that test. The kinship is close enough that when the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia wrote its osha monograph, it drew on pharmacokinetic work done on Ligusticum sinense and on garden lovage.

If you already know chuanxiong or gaoben

Then you know the smell. Osha carries the same family scent, with its own taste: earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite. It is the mountain relative of the two Chinese roots, from high country half a world away.

Bear Root is Mara's osha extract, made from Ligusticum porteri, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico. The Rarámuri there have their own name for it, wasía, and families brewed it as a tea for stomach pain and fever. The plant takes years to mature (many roots are over 10 years old when dug), and United Plant Savers lists it as "At-Risk".

The bottle is dark Miron glass. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, and Miron is the gold standard: it keeps light off the extract so it holds its quality on the shelf. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

Most people take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into tea, water or juice. A morning tea, an evening cup, a water bottle after a hike or run. It is a year-round ritual, and one bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

For the plant's full story, from the bear legend to where it grows, read our osha root guide. If you have seen "bear root" on one label and "osha" on another, bear root and osha root are the same plant.

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 Ligusticum porteri Chinese name?

There is no standard one. Chinese sources write "Osha" in English letters, and the plant belongs to the genus Chinese botany calls 藁本属 (gaoben shu).

Is osha the same as chuanxiong?

No. Chuanxiong (川芎) is a cultivated Sichuan rhizome, and osha is a wild mountain root from North America. They share a genus and the compound Z-ligustilide.

Is osha root Chinese lovage?

Chinese lovage is the English trade name for gaoben (藁本), from Ligusticum sinense and L. jeholense. Osha is sometimes called Porter's lovage or mountain lovage, a cousin of the Chinese root.

Is osha root in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia?

No. The 2020 Chinese Pharmacopoeia lists its relative chuanxiong, but osha grows outside China and was never part of the classical materia medica.