Aconite

"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite."

- Severus Snape during Harry's first Potions class in 1991.

Aconite (also known as monkshood or wolfsbane) is a plant with magical proprieties. Once widespread, this plant is now only found in wild places. Its flowers are useful in potion-making, but its leaves are very toxic. Aconite is most commonly known as an ingredient of Wolfsbane Potion. The root of aconite can be used as a potion ingredient.

Behind the scenes

 * There are over 250 species of Aconitum, the most common of which are known as aconite, monkshood, or wolfsbane.
 * Aconitum species are highly toxic, although they were used in medicine as a pain-reliever, diuretic, heart sedative, and to induce sweating.
 * In medieval Europe, aconite was often used as poison in animal bait or on arrows used when hunting wolves, hence the herb also became known as wolfsbane.
 * Aconite, a member of the buttercup family, was believed to be an important ingredient in witches' flying ointments.
 * Wolfsbane is used in Wideye or Awakening Potion on Pottermore.
 * The closed captions for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone erroneously refers to aconite as "akamite."

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
 * Pottermore