- "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.[src]
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.[1] 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.[2]
- In medieval Europe, aconite was often used as poison in animal bait[3] or on arrows used when hunting wolves, hence the herb also became known as wolfsbane.[4]
- Aconite, a member of the buttercup family, was believed to be an important ingredient in witches' flying ointments.[5][6]
- Wolfsbane is used in Wideye or Awakening Potion on Pottermore.
- The closed captions for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone erroneously refers to aconite as "akamite."
Appearances[]
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (film) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (video game) (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
- Pottermore
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (video game) - GBC version
- ↑ http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=HTML&rgn=div1&byte=1610857076
- ↑ http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=HTML&rgn=div1&byte=1610857076
- ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=htGD3Y7WNxwC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=aconite+witches+wolves&source=bl&ots=VjL2uk2bNP&sig=qdF2RB_9ejdcPaIq5tw_ZoQTN_0&hl=en&ei=IKM0Tr_yMcjogQfymsCYDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=aconite%20witches%20wolves&f=false
- ↑ http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_aconite.htm
- ↑ http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=HTML&rgn=div1&byte=1610857076
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