Announcements
Welcome to Potions 301!
Please read the following announcements before joining the course.
1. If you have submitted an assignment for this course, do NOT send the grading staff a message asking when your work will be graded if less than a month has elapsed. If more than a month has elapsed, please contact Professor Draekon and provide your Grade ID for that assignment in your message.
2. If you have any questions about the course content, please reach out to any Professor's Assistant for Potions 301. A list of current PAs can be found on the right side of this page.
3. If you believe an assignment has been graded in error, please reach out to Professor Draekon or Andromeda Cyreus, and provide your Grade ID for that assignment in your message.
4. Suggestions, compliments and constructive criticism about the course are always appreciated. If you have any comments about Potions 301, please send an owl to Professor Draekon.
Lesson 2) On Top of a Well-Stocked Ingredients Cabinet (Basic Healing Ingredients)
If you become a professional healer, it’s likely that you will be making several trips to the apothecary each week to restock ingredients. One should always be aware of the location for their local apothecary, just in case you need to whip up a last-minute potion. Today we will only be discussing ingredients that make sense to keep at home for practical healing purposes. If you move towards a healing career track, you will of course learn about ingredients that are less common and more difficult to acquire and keep fresh.
The first section of today’s lesson will involve some ingredients that, while they are also used in potions, can also be consumed without any brewing processes involved. Some of these ingredients are magical, but most tend to be mundane. This affords a slightly milder remedy to ailments that likely don’t require a healer or any intense treatments, such as insomnia, headaches and stomach aches.
The second section of the lesson will concentrate on some ingredients that make sense to keep despite the fact that they cannot be used without being brewed into very simple home-brewed potions. You should be able to follow their instructions with little difficulty at this point.
Some Simple Home Remedies: No Brewing Required
While more serious afflictions will require stronger remedies, and may even require a visit to a healer, there are some simple ingredients you can keep at home to cope with mild afflictions, such as upset stomach or headache. To begin, we will discuss a few of these ingredients that can help alleviate symptoms. However, any true afflictions should be dealt with by a licensed healer or certified doctor. Do not avoid needed professional medical advice in favor of self-diagnosing, no matter how well you do in this class, and always consult a professional if symptoms last longer than one month.
Bezoar: In case of emergency, it is always useful to have a supply of true bezoars in your medicine chest or potions cabinet for minor poisons; strong poisons will not be affected by the bezoar. “Bezoar” can refer to any mass that is trapped in the gastrointestinal system composed of various elements bound together in some fashion. Not all of these masses have healing or antidote properties, so it is important to ensure you have purchased the correct kind of bezoar.
A “true” bezoar - one with healing properties - is what is known as a food bolus (plural boli), and tends to be made up of seeds and fruit pits that are held together in a tight mass with types of gum, shellac, or other binding agents. A bezoar that cures poisons must also come from the stomach of a goat specifically. It is unknown what parts of a goat’s digestion causes their waste products to take on this antidote-like quality. It is possible there is some yet-undiscovered magical quality of goats that creates this helpful ingredient. Although bezoars are used in certain potions that work as antidotes to poisons, no brewing or spells are necessary in order to utilize a bezoar. One merely has to ingest it after the poison has been consumed.
In some Eastern traditions, an ox or a cow bezoar, a stone collected from the creature’s gallbladder, is also utilized although is less efficient at removing poisons. It is used more as a means of eliminating overall toxins from the body.
Chamomile: German chamomile, or Matricaria chamomilla, is a daisy-like flower that is found throughout Europe and in parts of Asia. Many of you have probably had chamomile tea or similar herbal infusions and may have felt a slight peacefulness or calmness. While chamomile does not cause drowsiness or fatigue, as many sleep agents do, chamomile extract is often recommended in a cup of tea thirty to forty minutes before sleep. It will not cure insomnia on its own, but has many natural chemicals, such as Apigenin, that promote relaxation and help relieve anxiety.
In potions, both this calming quality as well as the pleasant taste of chamomile make it a common optional addition to many potions that accidentally create unnecessary tension or hyperactivity, or potions that encourage and promote healthy sleep habits and remedy anxiety.
Chocolate: This will probably delight many students, but it’s also sensible to keep a little dark chocolate in your home. Too much chocolate - or any sugary candy - is not healthy, but as we mentioned in last year’s discussion of cacao, the substance has been linked to assisting with metabolic issues, cardiac problems, digestive problems, lowering the risk of cancer and boosting the immune system. Chocolate can also have a positive impact on your mood, boosting both endorphins, which block pain receptors and alleviate pain, and serotonin, which has been linked to increased self-confidence and improvement in overall positivity.
However, chocolate should still be consumed in moderation. Too much chocolate can lead to weight gain, digestive issues, migraines and even kidney stones. It should also be noted that, while some may prefer milk chocolate, dark chocolate contains more health benefits and a larger concentration of cocoa. White chocolate, on the other hand, only contains cocoa butter, which is merely an oil derived from cocoa beans, and possesses no positive effects at all!
Dittany: Origanum dictamnus magus is an herb that you will be covering soon in Herbology. It is also one of the most commonly used healing herbs. Although dittany has uses in healing potions, it is also incredibly effective on its own in healing wounds. Those of you who grew up in magical families quite likely saw your parents use dittany to heal all manner of bumps and scrapes if you fell while playing.
You may have also seen small bottles in your home labeled Essence of Dittany. This is when the essential oils of the plant have been extracted and stored, often in concentrated form. Much like the leaves of dittany, Essence of Dittany can be applied directly onto a wound. It has a more concentrated effect than simply using the leaves. However, as extracting the essence is more complicated than simply applying the leaves, Essence of Dittany is pricier than merely keeping a stock of dittany leaves. As dittany is now relatively rare, though not endangered, it is harvested carefully and only a certain amount is collected each year. This is somewhat more expensive than other herbs at the local apothecary.
Ginger: Should you be prone to motion sickness, equilibrium issues or stomach problems, it is wise to keep some ginger root or candied ginger in your potions cabinet. This plant is native to much of Southeast Asia, China, and New Guinea, although it was transported to parts of Africa and the Caribbean during the spice trade. Ginger was actually the first Far Eastern spice to be grown in the New World and exported back to Europe. There are also other species of gingers often used in cuisine, such as turmeric and cardamom, which are part of the same biological family.
Ginger is often used for medicinal purposes as well as a spice in cooking. The chemical Gingerol has been attributed to alleviating stomach and digestive issues, such as nausea and cramping. I typically keep a healthy supply of ginger with me whenever I travel via Floo Powder or Portkey, as it helps with the disorientation when you arrive at your intended destination.
Despite its use to alleviate stomach problems, there is still controversy over whether it is safe to consume ginger for morning sickness when pregnant. Some studies have indicated that it changes the genetic material in an organism, and increases the chances of unwanted mutations, in this case in the unborn child. However, other studies have suggested that it is an antimutagenic substance, which means that it counteracts other substances which are mutagens, which is a little contradictory, to say the least.
Lavender Oil: The oil of lavandula often contains high quantities of chemicals linalool and linalyl acetate, both of which inhibit chemicals in the brain that cause feelings of anxiety or stress. If you are prone to headaches or feelings of anxiety, you may want to keep lavender oil or something similar in your home. Even simply lighting a candle with lavender oil in the wax can help relax you after a long and stressful day.
Magical and non-magical healers who study alternative theories of healing often use lavender in aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the use of mostly plant-based essential oils and scents in order to re-establish and promote balance within the body. This concept of balance, while not explicitly derived from the humors in any sense, does relate to keeping the functions of the body in balance. The practice of aromatherapy is thought not only to relax a person, but often to help with healing and improve mental well-being.
While aromatherapy should never take the place of healing or medicinal cures, the anxiolytic properties of the plant’s oils should not be ignored. Anxiety and stress have been known to have psychosomatic effects, which is when the body creates or worsens symptoms where a true problem may or may not exist. Many headaches may be caused by stress, rather than deriving from true illness. This is one reason that lavender oil can be a good, gentle aid when one suffers from regular headaches.
Valerian Root: This is a slightly stronger alternative option to chamomile for dealing with insomnia and other sleep disorders. It contains actinidine, a compound that has a similar effect to the compound found in catnip. It is possible that it also has a similar chemical effect on rats, and some people use valerian in their rat traps.
Valerian root extract is typically ingested orally, either in liquid or pill form, after the roots have been dried. While valerian is considered a safe short-term sleep aid, there has not been sufficient study done to determine whether it is problematic when taken over long periods of time. Therefore, it’s often recommended that you take it over a short period of time to help with disordered sleeping, and consult a medical professional if you do not experience any improvements over the course of 28 days at most.
Some Simple Home Remedies: Brewing Required
You will likely have more ingredients in your potions cabinet than the fifteen mentioned in this lesson. While the above included ingredients that you do not have to brew in order to use and are not too unpleasant to use on their own, the following eight ingredients should be used only with a brewed potion. While they may not have harmful consequences when consumed without brewing, they are also not the most pleasant ingredients to consume without other additives to make them more palatable as well as dramatically more effective.
Also, the ingredients we are about to research can be used in much more powerful potions, and therefore require some additional care when using them in brewing. Many of these ingredients are magical and, as we have learned in the past, are often much more dramatic in effect than non-magical ones.
Dried Billywig Stings: Billywigs are small insects of approximately half an inch long that are native to Australia. They have a Ministry classification of XXX. When stung by a living Billywig, a witch or wizard will have a feeling of giddiness followed by a brief spell of levitation. This is a mostly harmless reaction, unless you have an allergy to Billywigs, in which case it could result in permanent levitation.
When they are dried, Billywig stings are very useful ingredients in potions that promote wakefulness and energy. They are particularly useful in the Awakening Potion, a very simple potion that is very efficacious not only in providing additional energy, but also able to awaken witches and wizards who have either taken simple sleeping potions or who have been knocked out by blunt force. Often in the case of concussions, when witches and wizards are still not supposed to sleep, they will be prescribed a low dose of Awakening Potion in order to keep them awake until they are past the point of danger.
Billywig stings are relatively easy to find in apothecaries throughout the United Kingdom. Although they are native to Australia, it is possible to breed them in captivity. As they are dried, they can be kept for up to two years, so one good supply should last for a while, particularly if you are not using energy or fortifying potions too often. However, they should still be stored in an airtight container in a moderate, dry climate to ensure they can keep for a full two years. If they are improperly kept, they can either grow moldy or disintegrate.
Dragon Liver: Admittedly this is a much more expensive ingredient than Billywig stings, as it is not legal to breed dragons in captivity, so they cannot be farmed as Billywig stings can be. A magical household will typically always keep a rather small quantity of dragon liver, as a small portion can go a long way in potions. It is not used too often except in rather strong antidotes to poisons. You cannot slice a dragon liver with a simple spell. Instead, it is necessary to use a very tough knife, owing to dragons’ magical resistance.
Dragon liver also has a relatively long shelf life and, if properly stored, can last up to five years before you should replace it. Many families only keep small quantities of dragon liver that long, since it is an ingredient one never hopes to use, due to the severe nature of the complications it treats. Dragon liver is also an ingredient - along with rue, nettles, and Artemisia reginis - in the only known potion that cures sepsis or blood poisoning.
Dragon liver has also been used in various potions that treat toxic shock syndrome (TSS), which is a relatively rare reaction to certain bacterial infections that causes fever, muscle pain, vomiting, rash, confusion, and occasionally even seizures. While TSS is rare, many families will have a very small quantity of TSS Antidote brewed and kept in the back of their potions cabinet, as it is a remedy that will last for several years if brewed correctly.
Flobberworm Mucus: Although Flobberworm mucus is not necessary in every potion, it is quite often an optional additive for the sake of the substance’s consistency. Otherwise, many potions will appear relatively runny or even “gloppy,” for lack of a better term. Flobberworm mucus is a common thickener, as it is an innocuous enough substance that it typically will not react negatively with other magical substances. As Flobberworms are easily cared for, some families will in fact keep a small quantity of Flobberworms in or outside their home so that they can continue to ethically breed and extract the mucus. This saves on the cost of going to the apothecary each time they need more Flobberworm mucus. It is most effective when it is fresh, within one to two weeks old, and can get a funny consistency after that period, which is another reason that it can be much more efficient to keep Flobberworms.
The mucus of the Flobberworm also displays some properties of a very mild stimulant and has been found to speed the user’s metabolism slightly. As such, the potions that you will typically see that do not utilize Flobberworm mucus are ones that promote sleep and occasionally weight gain. However, the effects of Flobberworm mucus in that regard are so mild that many sleeping potions, including the one we brewed last year, will include it for the sake of improving the consistency.
Horklump Juice: Despite appearing much like mushrooms, Horklumps are in fact animals . It is possible to collect Horklump juice without harming the animal, although you must distress it a great deal. The best way to collect Horklump juice is to enclose them in a jar with air holes. When the Horklump finds itself enclosed without soil or food, it will become distressed and sweat heavily, emitting juice to be collected and bottled. Although this does not harm the Horklump, strictly speaking, some creature rights activists do question the morality of causing this level of stress, though it has never been proven to cause it any long-term damage.
Horklump juice is used in many healing potions partially owing to its magical properties, but also because of a non-magical compound called cordycepin, which interacts uniquely with many magical ingredients to boost healing potential. This compound has been linked to cancer remedies, as well as easing rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, stroke damage, renal failure and other crucial health problems.
Although it may seem odd for an animal and fungus to share chemical compounds, animals and fungi are actually more closely related to one another than to any other kingdom. You do see some similarities insofar as, while plants can generate their own food via photosynthesis, fungi are not able to do this, and like animals, must find food in other sources.
Horklumps can be bred fairly easy in captivity, and are often harvested commercially for their juice. Horklump juice should be available at any standard apothecary for a reasonable fee. As many people consider Horklumps to be pests, they most often do not keep them to harvest the juice themselves. They also tend to attract gnomes, which is another deterrent to keeping them in or around a private garden.
Horned Slugs: You have already worked with the horned slug in Year One, as it was an ingredient in the Cure for Boils potion (as well as in other potions that assist in curing rashes and skin infections), and the mucus secreted by the horned slug can also be used in certain beautifying and moisturizing potions. The horned slug is related to several slugs in the taxonomic categorization Sigmurethra, which includes land snails as well as other species of slugs. Although horned slugs are typically purchased preserved or still living, it is important to stew them before they can be used in potions. When an ingredient is stewed, that means that it is placed in boiling water and cooked until it is hot enough that the ingredient gives off steam itself. Stewed horned slugs should be used within three days, otherwise they are no good to use.
Much like non-magical slugs, the horned slug’s body consists mostly of water. As such, it is imperative that you keep any and all horned slugs, both living and dead, away from salt. This compound causes osmosis (when water molecules move from an area with higher concentration of water molecules - namely the slug’s body - to an area with lower concentration of water molecules) and will kill living slugs and also cause the disintegration of dead horned slugs.
If you plan to use the horned slugs later on, it is wise to buy them living, as the bodies typically become unfit for use within one week , while the horned slug has a lifespan of approximately four years. Horned slugs are relatively easy to keep in captivity, as long as you keep them well-hydrated and fed fruits and vegetables, or even leftover meat products.
Lionfish Spines: Should you find yourself swimming with lionfish, beware! The spines of the lionfish as well as the fin rays are incredibly venomous. However, when collected, crushed to a fine powder and brewed in potions, the spines can have a powerful healing effect, particularly when reactivating the neurological or pulmonary system. Some healers have described lionfish spines’ as having a similar effect to a shot of adrenaline, giving the body an extra surge and often assisting in helping patients in a coma, for both magical and non-magical reasons, come out of their unconscious state.
Care should always be taken when using lionfish spines. Even when unattached from the lionfish’s body, unexpired spines will still have a measure of venom within them. Dragon-hide gloves should always be worn when utilizing these ingredients, and should you find yourself pricked by the spine, proper care should be taken. A mild anti-venom potion can fight the negative effects of being pricked by a lionfish spine when preparing to use the ingredients, and the wound should be thoroughly cleaned of any spine fragments and dressed with dittany. Being stung by a lionfish spine can lead to nausea, vomiting, and extreme pain in most cases, so exercise caution.
They can be kept for up to six months in a warm, dry environment before they lose their effect and become incredibly brittle. They are typically kept in an airtight container to minimize decay over time.
Fire Salamander Blood: The incredible thermal energy consumed by the fire salamander, generated by living in an actual fire, is collected within the salamander’s blood, making it incredibly potent even after the salamander’s death. This energy has powerful restorative, rejuvenating and healing properties. Severe muscle and ligament tears and other sports injuries are often treated with potions that contain salamander blood for this reason. However, be careful of certain recreational drinks containing salamander blood, as it has become rather common to use both butterfly wings, which cause hallucinations, and salamander blood in these drinks and leads to a rather euphoric but extreme effect.
Salamander blood is most often sold in airtight bottles, vials or beakers. It must be kept in a very warm location or it loses its potency. Some potioneers actually keep their salamander blood over a constant flame to emulate the heat of the salamander during its lifetime. This can actually lengthen the duration that the blood keeps its potency: salamander blood can typically store over a flame for up to two months, while it loses its strength in one day if kept in moderate temperatures and one month if kept in a very warm environment.
Snake Fangs: Another ingredient you likely remember from your first year, snake fangs are common ingredients in the Awakening Potion, the Cure for Boils, as well as the Strength Potion. Snake fangs as you purchase them from the apothecary are non-venomous, although they do come from various venomous snakes. The type of snake fang used varies regionally, as most regions use snakes native to their own area. In Potions class, you will find that we use Vipera berus, also typically known as the common European adder or the common European viper. The Ministry has tried to standardize this snake for use in potions worldwide, but for reasons of convenience, many parts of the world still favor snakes native to their region.
It is possible to extract snake fangs without killing the snake, although it is ill-advised if you expect to release it into the wild again, as it will have lost its means of hunting and defending itself. Most snakes have several sets of fangs, however, as even in the wild, it is not unknown for them to break or lose a fang.
It is important to keep it in a moderate to slightly cool, dry environment to ensure the fangs do not fall apart. While they can typically keep for several months, if you notice the fangs begin to get brittle or otherwise frequently snapping or breaking, safely dispose of them and get a new supply, as they are nearing the end of their efficacy.
With this final ingredient, we reach the conclusion of our lengthy lesson. I have a good deal to cover this year, and was trying to pack a lot of preliminary information in before we get to healing! Remember there is a quiz and an essay to complete this week. I expect all of you to do exceptionally well on them.
Dismissed.
Original lesson written by Professor Lucrezia Batyaeva
Image credits here, here, here, and here
- PTNS-201
Enroll
-
Rani Flame
Head Student
-
Andromeda Cyreus
Head Student
-
David McGonagall
Professor's Assistant
-
Dane Lautner
Professor's Assistant
-
John granger
Professor's Assistant
