Osha Root Monograph, from Latin Name to Tincture

An osha root monograph starts with the name, and the name is Ligusticum porteri. It is a root of the carrot family that grows high in the mountains, from the Rocky Mountains south into the Sierra Madre of Mexico, and it has been dug and chewed by the peoples of those mountains for centuries. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia published its own osha monograph with United Plant Savers in December 2018.

Osha root Latin name and common names

The botanical name is Ligusticum porteri J.M. Coult. & Rose. Osha (said OH-shuh) is the common name in English, and bear root is the one most people know it by. Hispanic ranchers in New Mexico call it chuchupate, and other Spanish names include chuchupaste and chuchupastle. The Rarámuri of Northern Mexico call it wasía. The Akimel O'odham name is jujubáádi. In Lakota it is mato tapejuta, bear medicine. Other English names are Porter lovage and Colorado cough root.

Bear root and osha are the same plant. We wrote a short piece on why both names stuck: bear root vs osha root.

Family and description in an osha root monograph

Osha belongs to Apiaceae, the carrot and parsley family, and is a close relative of lovage. The plant stands 50 to 130 cm tall, with parsley-like leaves and flat umbels of small white flowers. Where the leaf stalks meet the root crown they turn a reddish colour. The root itself is dark brown and hairy on the outside, with a collar of old leaf fibre at the top, and yellow inside. Cut it and it smells of celery and butterscotch.

Habitat and altitude

Osha lives in the subalpine zone, often just below the tree line, in open meadows and under aspen, spruce, fir and oak. Its recorded range runs from 1,500 m in Utah and Wyoming up to about 3,500 m. In the southern part of the range it keeps to 2,100 to 3,000 m. A 2013 Kansas Biological Survey report by Kelly Kindscher and colleagues notes that the range extends well south into the Sierra Madre of Mexico. Mara's Bear Root is a mountain plant of Northern Mexico.

Part used

The root. Harvesters favour large roots, and the Kindscher report records that these usually come from plants at least ten years old.

Constituents

The compound herbal chemists measure in osha is Z-ligustilide, a phthalide it shares with lovage. In osha root it runs from 0.15 to 2.5% of the root. A 2020 study by Kemal Durić and colleagues in the Bulletin of the Chemists and Technologists of Bosnia and Herzegovina measured ligustilide at 3.74% of the essential oil distilled from L. porteri root. The AHP monograph lists HPLC and HPTLC as the lab methods for confirming the plant's identity.

Osha root medicinal properties, as herbalists record them

Materia medica entries describe a plant by taste and by its energetics, the old herbalist's language of warm and cool, dry and moist. Osha is written down as warming, aromatic and bitter. Writing on an herbalists' forum in May 1996, the herbalist Howie Brounstein described the root as aromatic and bitter and called osha "a very warming herb." Taken as a tincture, Bear Root tastes earthy and warming, with a sharp, celery-like bite from the root.

Osha root materia medica and traditional use

The oldest physical record is a root found in the Patterson Bundle, a leather medicine satchel from Utah dated to 200 to 600 years old. The written record comes from ethnobotanists working with the peoples who use it.

• The Zuni made a root infusion for body aches and used the crushed root in water for sore throat. They also chewed the root during curing ceremonies.
• The Diné tell that a bear gave them osha as medicine, and used it for a hoarse voice.
• Rarámuri families in Northern Mexico brewed it as a tea for stomach pain and fever.
• The Lakota name, mato tapejuta, means bear medicine.
• The Comanche used it for pneumonia.

The bear story has a field note behind it. The ethnobotanist Shawn Sigstedt put osha root in front of captive Kodiak bears on two occasions. Each time the bears chewed it into a mash and rubbed it into their fur.

What the research found

In 2008 Oscar Beltran at the University of Texas at El Paso tested three plants the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) and neighbouring peoples of Northern Mexico use for tuberculosis and chest illness. Osha extract stopped more than half the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain H37Rv at the lowest concentration tested, and at that concentration it showed no toxicity to human cells. The other two plants in the study were harder on the cells at lower doses.

Preparations

The historical forms were the chewed root and the root tea. Herbalists today mostly tincture osha. Brounstein's 1996 note explains why. Some of the root's constituents are only partly soluble in water, so a tea leaves part of the plant in the pot. An alcohol extract carries both the water-soluble and the oil-soluble parts.

A tincture also solves the practical problems of a dried root. Nothing to grate, boil or strain. A measured dropper gives the same amount each time, and the extract stays sealed in glass, away from the air and light that dull chopped root in a bag. Bear Root is a tincture (an alcohol extract) in a 50 ml 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. A dropper in morning tea, or in a water bottle after a hike or a run, works any time of year. At 1 to 2 droppers a day a bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

On glass, dark amber is a step in the right direction. The gold standard is dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract and adds to how long it holds its quality. Bear Root comes in dark Miron glass.

Bear Root – Osha Root Tincture

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

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Sustainability

Attempts to farm osha have had little success, so almost all of it is wild-harvested. United Plant Savers lists it as At-Risk, with an at-risk score of 48. An American Herbal Products Association survey covering 2011 to 2017 put demand at about 1,765 pounds of root a year across roughly 26 companies. Colorado limits permitted harvest to 10 pounds of root per person per year. A plant dug today may have taken a decade or more to reach harvest size.

Osha also grows near poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), and the young plants look alike. Michael Moore covered the confusion in Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West (1979). Telling them apart in the field takes an experienced harvester, so buy from a maker you trust who knows where the root came from. For more on the plant itself, start with our osha root guide.

Bear Root considerations

Our recommendation: 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 Latin name for osha root?

Ligusticum porteri, in the Apiaceae (carrot and parsley) family.

Is osha the same as lovage?

They are close relatives in the same family. Garden lovage is Levisticum officinale, and both contain the compound Z-ligustilide.

What part of osha is used?

The root. Herbalists favour large roots from plants at least ten years old.

How long does a bottle of Bear Root last?

A 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at 1 to 2 droppers a day.