Osha
Family Name: Parsley
Family Name: Apiaceae (Umbellifereae)
Latin Name: Ligusticum porteri
History: Ligusticum translates “from Liguria,” a province in Italy. Osha means “bear (Gladstar
176-181).”
Common Names: Chuchupate, a common Mexican term, is ancient Aztec for bear medicine.
Early pioneers called it Colorado cough root (Buhner 129). Porter‟s Lovage (Moore 119).
Indian Parsley (Holmes ___).
Native American Names:
Related Species: Umbellifers grow in mountain regions the world over. In Europe, masterwort,
Imperatoria ostruthis, grows in the Alpines, and treats same complaints as Osha. In China,
Ligusticum types grow plenty and is similarly used (Moore ___). L. filicinum.
Body System Affiliations:
1. Respiratory, aeration, lungs
2. Circulation, heart
3. Metabolism, liver (Wood 13).
Botanical Description:
Habit: Herb. Typical parsley family plant, hollow stems. Strong celery or parsley scent
(Moore 119).
Size: 2-3 feet tall.
Arrangement: Pinnately compound leaves (Gladstar 176-181).
Leaves: Look like parsley (Buhner 130). Large basal [pinnately compound] leaves, finely
divided, are sometimes as long as two feet from stalk to tip. A few smaller leaves clasp the
flower stalk. Older plants may have dozens of leaves and as many as six flowering stems,
forming a large distinctive rosette in wet meadows (Moore 119).
Flowers: Flat –topped umbels of seeds and white flowers spring from a single juncture
like an umbrella (Moore 119).
Fruit: Gradually ripens into fennel-sized double seeds with a pleasant “celery soup”
flavor.
Underground Parts: The root is quite hairy, its inner pith is yellow and somewhat soapy
feeling (Buhner 130). The root system in large plants can convolute and regrow in endless
configurations and plenty bulk. Possesses strong smell like celery-butterscotch (Moore 119).
Ecology:
Status: At-Risk.
Habitat: Fragile environment, winters harsh, spring and summer is short. The plants and
creatures that live [in these high meadows] are specially adapted and critically dependent upon
one another. Human‟s are kindergarten students in nature. As a result we see Osha and it‟s
habitat disappearing (Gladstar 176-181).
Range: Although Buhner says Osha can be found above 7000 feet throughout the Rocky
Mountain Range from Mexico to Canada (129), Moore says to start above 10,000 feet (119).
Several species are spread throughout the coastal ranges of California and the western slopes of
the Sierra Nevada but most ring the Great Basin, on the east side of the Sierras and Cascades,
including the Blues, Selkirks, the major Nevada ranges and (as Buhner already stated) the Rocky
Mountain Range (Moore 301).
Native Where: Liguria, a province in Italy.
Ecological Relationships: The interdependent roles of plants within the area is well
established, as is Oshas relationship to bears.
Places/Dates Observed/Description: Joyce‟s friend sent her a few whole roots from
Oregon.
Propagation: Buhner says Osha is a plant of the wild, and does not like to be domesticated
(130), though my friend Joyce is testing that theory.
Soil: Rich, moist, slightly to moderately acidic.
Timing: Seeds are sown on top of the soil in late fall, cupped-side up.
Technique: Partial shade, preferably from Conifers. Keep seeds moist until they
germinate. At an inch or so tall, space 1 foot apart (Gladstar 176-181).
Companions:
Harvest:
Plant Part: Root (Moore 301), though seeds and leaves make an excellent culinary herb
says Buhner (129).
Season of Harvest: After seeding in September, but before the leaves have died off.
Largest plants yellow and die back first.
Method of Harvest: Use a nursery man‟s shovel and a pry bar (Moore 120). The roots
are stubborn and strong and grow among the Aspen roots (Buhner 130). Use a hand trowel
(Gladstar 176-181).
“Make sure the seeds are ready to fall, brown and dry. Prepare soft flat step on the
hillside. Place umbelettes upside down like mini tipis. Oil duct of the seed needs to be upside
down. Space closely, roots like to entwine together in a large mass. Carefully cover with ½ to 1
inch light soil and decaying leaves. Protect the area with branches and small logs (Phillips 47).”
Ecological Considerations of Harvest: “Mature plants are 10-20 years old, and their
interdependent roles are well established. Limit harvest to periphery of large, healthy stands,
preferably from the edges of a well-established moose trail. Soil compression is a primary
concern. Be aware of animal forage, moose and bears need them more than we do. Leave no
visible change in the stand. After digging the root, shake seeds and lay the umbel-bearing stem
of the plant onto the exact same spot it was dug. Monitor long term effects of harvest for years.
Is there re-growth? Did the seeds germinate? Is there any new impact?”
Take note of bear and other animal activity.
Cultural Considerations of Harvest:
Ups Recommendations: Use wild plant only when absolutely necessary. Thyme,
elecampane, march mallow, lovage, angelica, and rosemary are good alternatives. The only way
to assure Osha is being harvested with respectful attention to its environment is to harvest it
yourself and only use it for its unique indication: a dry cough secondary to a respiratory virus.
Cultivated Lovage, L. officinalis, is an excellent alternative in most instances.
Cautions: Can be confused with Poison Hemlock (Buhner 129). Start above 10,000 feet.
Look at the mature seeds in the center. Poison Hemlock doesn‟t grow above 7,500 feet. Water
hemlock as high as 9,200 feet. Osha is often mislabeled as one of these (Moore 119).
Processing and Storage: It is one plant that can be dried in the sun without harming it.
Will last for many years without rotting because of its antiviral and antibacterial substances
(Buhner 130).
Indigenous and Non-Western Use/Significance/Relationships:
Food: The Apache, Chiricahua, and Mescalero have eaten Osha raw and cooked with green chile
and meat or animal bones.
Medicine:
Part Used: Root.
Body System Associations: Respiratory
Applications: Decoction as tea, wash or liniment.
Medicinal Action: Panacea
Indigenous Group: The Menominee have used L. filicinum root, also called
Fernleaf Licoriceroot, for many ailments.
Indications: Cough medicine
Indigenous Group: The Paiute.
Medicinal Action: Anti-rheumatic
Indigenous Group: The Zuni have used Osha root externally for body aches.
Ceremonial Medicine: It is chewed on by the Zuni medicine man and patient during
ceremonies for various illnesses.
Medicinal Action: Throat-aid.
Indigenous group: The Zuni have crushed the root with water to make a wash for
a sore throat.
Energetics:
Therapeutic category: mild herb with minimal chronic toxicity.
Constituents: Essential oil, resin, glycoside, silicon, bitters.
Effective qualities: pungent, a bit bitter, warm, dry, stimulating, relaxing.
Tropism: Lungs, stomach, intestines, uterus, kidneys, skin.
Air, warmth, organisms
Lung, stomach, spleen meridians
Indications and functions:
1. Promotes sweating, dispels wind cold and reduces fever; promotes eruptions
and relieves pain.
a. external wind cold chills, fatigue, aches, and pains.
b. Cold and Flu onset
c. Eruptive Fevers (including measles and chickenpox)
d. wind damp obstruction with acute neuralgic or rheumatic pains
e. Toothache
2. Promotes expectoration, resolves phlegm and relieves wheezing; reduces
infection and opens the sinuses; restores the Bronchi.
a. lung phlegm cold with coughing up white sputum, wheezing,
tightchest.
b. Head damp cold (lung wind cold) with nasal congestion and discharge
c. Viral respiratory infections with inflammation, including bronchitis
and laryngitis.
d. Emphysema, silicosis, lung TB
3. Stimulates digestion, warms the middle, and relieves abdominal pain and
flatus.
a. Stomach and intestines cold (Spleen Yang deficiency) with epigastric
or abdominal pain, vomiting, loose stool.
b. Enterits, colitis
c. Intestines Qi constraint with abdominal distention and flatus
4. Promotes menstruation and urination, and expels the afterbirth.
a. Uterus cold with delayed or stopped menses, constant lower
abdominal pain.
b. Spasmodic Dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea
c. Failure to progress during labor, retained placenta
d. Kidney Qi stagnation with skin rashes, irregular urination, fetid stool.
Use: Tinctured or decocted for best results; equally good if not better is the overnight
cold water maceration (heat up before serving). An essential oil can be extracted from
the root and seed, which probably has amplified antiseptic, spasmolytic, diaphoretic,
emmenagogue properties.
Dosage:
Tincture: 1-3 ml, or 25-80 drops.
Decoction: ½ oz per pint (or ½ L) of water.
Caution: Contraindicated in deficient yin and deficient blood syndromes due to its
stimulating nature, and during pregnancy as it is also a uterine stimulant.
Notes:
Root of European mountain plant of the same family, masterwort, Imperatoria
ostruthis, has virtually identical properties and may be used interchangeably with
osha root (Holmes ___).
Western (European-American) Uses/Relationships:
Food: Seeds and leaves hold their flavor for excellent spice (Moore 120).
Medicine:
Part Used: Root.
Body System Associations: Respiratory, circulation, digestive, and metabolism.
Constituents: Essential oil, resin, glycoside, silicon, bitters.
Applications: Maximum benefit is obtained from chewing, tincturing, or
encapsulating (Moore 120). Also tea and powdered root, but best as a cough syrup
(Buhner 129).
Medicinal Actions: Antibacterial, anti-parasitic (Buhner 129-131). Antiviral,
and expectorant (Gladstar 176-181). Antiseptic, spasmolytic, diaphoretic, and emmenagogue
(Holmes___).
Indication: One of the best treatments for viral infections through sweating and
eliminating toxins, especially at first sign.
Applications: Tinctured or chewed.
Pharmacy: Up to a teaspoon of tincture or walnut sized piece of
root, every three or four hours (Moore 120).
Indication: For dry irritative cough, acute chest cold with dry membranes and
fever; obstinate respiratory virus that doesn‟t peak properly (Moore 301).
Indication: Soothes and anesthetizes sore throats and bronchial inflammations
with expectoration.
Indication: For abrasions and superficial infections,
Applications: A tincture or tea (Moore 120).
Indication: Stomach indigestion, cramping, and pain associated with the
beginnings of ulceration in the stomach or duodenum (Buhner 129).
Preparation and Pharmacy:
Tincture: 1:5, 70% alcohol, 20-60 drops up to 5 times a day
(Moore 301). At least 70% alcohol because it is poorly soluble in
water (Gladstar 176-181).
Cold infusion: of grated root, 2 to 6 oz (Moore 301).
Simple syrup: ground root mixed with 2 times the amount of
honey, steeped an hour then pressed when cool (Buhner of Moore
129).
Storage: It is one plant that can be dried in the sun without harming it. Will last
for many years without rotting because of its antiviral and antibacterial substances (Buhner 130).
Cautions: Contraindicated in deficient yin and deficient blood syndromes due to
its stimulating nature, and during pregnancy as it is also a uterine stimulant.
Essential Oil Information:
Essential Oil: Pthalides
Medicinal Actions: Warming, expectorant and anesthetic to the upper
respiratory passages, providing quick stimulation to the mucous membranes.
Indications: Makes coughs wetter and more productive.
Essential Oils: Phytosterols
Medicinal Actions: Helps relieve upper respiratory inflammation
(Gladstar 176-181).
Aromatherapy:
Cautions: Contraindicated in deficient yin and deficient blood syndromes due to
its stimulating nature, and during pregnancy as it is also a uterine stimulant.
Notes:
If you live in the mountain west, it is the ideal pungent-warm sweating herb. The
essential oils are largely eliminating ones, use as an eliminant remedy, where an
obstruction or stasis in one of the waste channels exist. Used mainly to cause
sweating, promote tardy menses and resolve phlegm, where cold and stagnation
has set in, as at the end of infections. Specifically for viral infections of the upper
airways are most benefited by this root; which has more affinity for the lungs than
any other part. Silica content helps explain the real restorative action on this
organ-prevents scar tissue from forming in emphysema, silicosis, etc.
Umbellifers grow in mountain regions the world over. In Europe, masterwort
grows in the Alpines, and treats same complaints as Osha. In China, Ligusticum
types grow plenty and is similarly used (Moore ___).
Personal Experience:
Medicine:
Part Used: Root.
Applications: Tincture.
Harvest: I was lucky enough to benefit from Osha‟s presence when a friend of
Joyce‟s sent her three harvested roots from Oregon.
Processing: We potted two hoping to cultivate them at Fire Rose Farm, and cut
up the remaining one in order to make a tincture. The rough chopped pieces were soaked first in
a small amount of Brandy in order to soften the tissue to release the medicine more easily to the
tincture.
Also, after purchasing a bit from Radiance, I chopped up the root into smallish
pieces, and soaked overnight in half as much brandy as I need. It was very dirty, and after a few
rinses, I discovered part of the lower root structure had begun to rot.
Preparation: I blended the soaked mixture and topped it off with 75% alcohol
rum. I like to follow the folk method. That is, put it in a jar, cover the root with the brandy, and
shake every day, topping it off as needed.
Pharmacy: 20-60 drops of tincture up to 5 times a day (Moore 301).
Reason/Purpose: My reason for choosing Osha is all in its bear energy. I‟d like
to take Buhner‟s advice and seek this plant as an ally.
Experience: When I nibbled on a bit of Joyce‟s gnarly root, yellowish and juicy
on the inside, I received the powerful impact of Osha‟s strength in my mouth. Hard to describe.
I was taken aback, in a commanding way, but I liked it. Remarked in wonder at the numbness
left on the corner of my lips from their brief contact.
I tasted some of the dried bit I got from Radiance, and though it was not as strong
as the roots Joyce had received, it still had quite a powerful punch. I smelled it on my hands
after several washings and hours.
Other Notes of Interest:
Energy: “Osha is of the west, the “looks within place.” An herb for warriors, for those
who must go into the darkness and face their own demons. Its life and power lies beneath the
ground like a bear curled in its den. Strong bear energy. To call on Osha you must have your
own warrior energy available; ask it from a place of strength and power. You must be willing to
become a person of passion and strong feeling, you must allow your rage and power to come out,
to draw a line and say „no more…‟ It goes to the root, helps those who are going through
destructuring. It understands the stripping away process necessary to deep transformation. For
those who struggle to learn the „truce of the bear (Buhner 130).”
“Sends up parts which look like furry brown paws and contain resins which stir up fats
and oils, stimulate circulation, and remove mucus. Generally, Bear Medicines work on the
lungs, heart, and liver-the aeration, circulation, and metabolism of the body (Wood 13).”
Bears Use: Just like catnip to cats, bears roll in Osha, covering themselves with its scent.
Males dig up roots and offer them to females when courting, eat it to cleanse digestive system
out of hibernation, chew to watery paste and spit it on paws, wash their face, spray it over their
body. Strong action against parasites (Buhner 130-131).
Cautions: Can be confused with Poison Hemlock (Buhner 129). Start above 10,000 feet.
Look at the mature seeds in the center. Poison Hemlock doesn‟t grow above 7,500 feet. Water
hemlock as high as 9,200 feet. Osha is often mislabeled as one of these (Moore 119).
Photographs, copies from: http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com, wildflowers.jankirkpatrick.net,
www.cs.tu-berlin.de/ ~grisu/bears.jpg, lynx.uio.no/ jon/gif/animals, and www.alaska-bear-pictures.com
Drawings: by me, based on Moore and Phillips.
References Cited:
1. Buhner, Stephen. Sacred Plant Medicine. Coeur d‟ Alene, Idaho: Raven Press, 1996.
2. Gladstar, Rosemary and Pamela Hirsch, editors. Planting the Future. Vermont: Healing Arts
Press, 2000. (Gregory Tilford is the author…)
3. Holmes, Peter. The Energetics of Western Herbs. Berkeley: Natrop Publishing, 1989.
4. Moore, Micheal. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. New Mexico: Museum of New
Mexico Press, 1979.
5. ---. Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West. Santa fe, New Mexico: Red Crane Books, 2001.
6. Moerman, Daniel E. Native American Ethnobotany. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc.,
1998.
7. Phillips, Nancy and Michael. Village Herbalist. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Co.,
2001.
8. Wood, Matthew. The Book of Herbal Wisdom. California: North Atlantic Books, 1997.
Rebecca townsEnd - Art, Environment, and the Child - Winter - 2006