Santa Fe / New Mexico / United States
Saturday, April 23, 2005 Wild Herb Osh Is Popular With Bears as Well as Humans By Rachel Ray For the Journal Its almost springtime, and in the Canjilon area of the Carson National Forest, black bears will be emerging from their dens. After a long dehydrating sleep, a human might head to the refrigerator for a glass of orange juice. But the bears newly awakened senses are seeking a very different restorative; their powerful sense of smell may very well take them to trees exuding a pungent odor like highly concentrated celery. That celery smell comes from osh , a root-like plant belonging to the celery family, which grows at the base of the trees. Bears have been observed devouring osh as well as rubbing it on their faces and ears after hibernation. But as its growth declines, scientists and herbalists in New Mexico have begun a mission to determine first whether osh can be grown under modified conditions as an alternative, high-value crop, and secondly, every conceivable use for this plant known colloquially as "bear root." According to New Mexico State University Professor Charles A. Martin, the observance of the bears springtime ritual by Native Americans led them to conclude that if osh is good for bears, then it must be good for them, too. It came to be viewed as a powerful natural antibiotic that was cleansing the bears systems after their long hibernations as well as ridding their faces of lice and other parasites. Today, osh , or Ligusticum porteri, which can be found at altitudes of 8, 000 feet and above, primarily in New Mexico and Colorado, is in demand for human medicinal use not only in the states covering its bioregion but on the East and West coasts and in Europe. Contributing to osh s decline is a slow growth cycle of seven to 10 years, combined with over-harvesting and, in Martins view, global warming. Yet demand for the plant is so high that some herbalists predict its popularity could ultimately rival that of echinacea. Tomas Enos, an herbalis
