Osha Root in Spanish, and the Other Names It Goes By

Osha root in Spanish is chuchupate. That is the name you will hear in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua and Durango and among Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico, and it covers the same plant English speakers call osha or bear root: Ligusticum porteri, a member of the carrot and parsley family that grows at 1,500 to 3,500 m. Chuchupate is one name of more than twenty. A 2010 thesis from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) lists Spanish names that change from state to state, plus names in at least six Indigenous languages.

What is osha root in Spanish?

The short answer is chuchupate, with a cluster of spellings around it. G. S. Zárate Cruz's UNAM thesis, a study of the plant's anatomy for the Mexican herbal pharmacopoeia, records these Spanish names and where people use them:

• chuchupate, chuchupaste, chuchufaste, chuchupasto and guarica (Chihuahua and Mexico City)
• raíz de cochino (Durango)
• yerba del cochino (Chihuahua and Durango)
• raíz angélica (Texas)
• raíz de oso and medicina de oso
• perejil indio, apio de monte and apio de monte salvaje
• raíz del amor and ginseng de montaña

Other sources add a few more. A CITES Plants Committee document gives chuchupa as a Mexican short form, and the ethnobotanists Irigoyen-Rascón and Paredes (2015) list chupate, chuchupastle and hierba de cochino. The pig names (cochino) belong to Durango and Chihuahua. The parsley and celery names (perejil indio, apio de monte) describe the leaves and the smell, which herbalists compare to spicy celery.

Raíz de oso, yerba del oso and the bear names

The bear names come from the story told across the plant's range: bears dig up the root after hibernation, chew it and rub it into their fur. Raíz de oso (bear root) and medicina de oso (bear medicine) are the two bear names Zárate Cruz recorded. Yerba del oso and hierba del oso are what many people type into a search bar, and they point to the same idea, though the published name lists use raíz de oso. For buying, the bear name on a label tells you less than the Latin name next to it.

Indigenous names for osha

The Spanish and English names sit on top of much older ones. These are the names with a named people and a named source behind them:

• wasía, Rarámuri (Tarahumara) of Chihuahua, per Zárate Cruz (2010)
• mato tapejuta, Lakota, meaning bear medicine, per the US National Library of Medicine's Native Voices exhibition
• kwimi dechi, Zuni of New Mexico
• ha-chi-de, Mescalero Apache of New Mexico
• pah-net-snap, Paiute of Utah, and wadda-e-gopa, Paiute of Nevada
• jujubáádi, Akimel O'odham

The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, in its 2018 monograph, notes that several Southwestern tribes called the plant the gift of the bear. The Diné credit the medicine to the bear as well. The Rarámuri brewed wasía root as a tea for stomach pain and fever, and Tarahumara communities in the Sierra Madre later formed their own business to harvest and process it, according to the CITES report.

The word osha is said to come from a Native American language, though no earlier form has been identified. English writers have used "osha root" since 1873.

Osha root common names in English

English has its own pile: bear root, Porter's lovage, Porter's licorice root, mountain lovage, loveroot, wild parsley, wild celery and Colorado cough root. The University of Kansas osha report (2013) traces bear root to the belief that Native Americans learned the plant's uses by watching bears. Our post on why bear root and osha root are the same plant covers where the English names came from.

Shared names, different plants

A long list of names is useful for history and risky at the shop counter, because several of these names also belong to other plants.

Wild celery is the clearest case. The same English name is used for an aquatic grass (Vallisneria americana), for purple angelica (Angelica atropurpurea) and for wild celery proper. Raíz angélica, the Texas name, sounds like angelica, a different genus. Zárate Cruz placed Ligusticum porteri in a "chuchupate complex" that also includes Myroxylon balsamum, a tropical tree, and the thesis concludes that its anatomy data can help confirm the chopped root sold in markets as chuchupate and osha. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia counts five other Ligusticum species that get called oshá, while the American Herbal Products Association's Herbs of Commerce assigns the name oshá to Ligusticum porteri alone.

Then there is the field problem. United Plant Savers, which lists osha as At-Risk, names poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), mountain parsley and young biscuitroot as plants it gets mistaken for where their ranges overlap. Osha's own roots are hairy and dark brown, with a spicy celery smell.

So when you buy, read the label for these:

• the Latin name Ligusticum porteri, spelled out
• the part used (root)
• where the root comes from
• the bottle: dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, and dark Miron glass is the gold standard

Any of the twenty-plus names can appear on a bag in a market. Ligusticum porteri is the name that settles which plant is inside.

Bear Root, a mountain plant of Northern Mexico

Mara's Bear Root is osha root tincture, Ligusticum porteri from the mountains of Northern Mexico, the same Sierra Madre country where people say chuchupate and wasía. The Latin name is on the label. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract. It comes in a 50 ml dark Miron glass dropper bottle, which keeps light off the extract.

The taste is earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root, the same celery note behind the names apio de monte and wild celery. Bear Root is made for a daily ritual, any time of year. Take 1 to 2 droppers a day and hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds before you swallow. Or stir it into your morning tea, or into the water bottle you carry on a hike or a run. At 1 to 2 droppers a day, one bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

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

Add to bag

For where osha grows, how it smells and why it's scarce, read our complete guide to osha root.

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 osha root called in Mexico?

Chuchupate is the most common name, with spellings like chuchupaste and chuchufaste. In Durango it is also called raíz de cochino, and the Rarámuri of Chihuahua call it wasía.

Is chuchupate the same as osha?

Yes. Both names refer to Ligusticum porteri. Check the Latin name on the label, since chuchupate has also been applied to other plants.

What does mato tapejuta mean?

It is the Lakota name for osha and means bear medicine, as recorded in the National Library of Medicine's Native Voices exhibition.

How do you say bear root in Spanish?

Raíz de oso. Medicina de oso, bear medicine, is also recorded.