The Meaning Behind Potion Ingredient Names

Whether you’re brewing Murtlap Essence in Severus Snape’s dungeon, winning a vial of Felix Felicis from Horace Slughorn, or secretly concocting Polyjuice Potion inside of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the art of potion-making is one which often causes a stir in animal rights circles.

​Despite the intertwining between the magical properties of potion-making and herbal healing, we often read the ingredients lists in the Potter universe with horror. Think murtlap tentacles, bat spleens, and billywig wings to name just a few!
 
It begs the question, do vegans and animal rights activists have a place in the Potions classroom at Hogwarts? And if so, are these jaw-dropping ingredients all they appear to be?

I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching  the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death."
– Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Our perception of Potions within the wizarding world is seen through the exploitation of animals. There appears not to be a single potion that exempts animal parts from these bubbling brews. 

Whether it is concocting a Draught of Peace with powdered moonstone, unicorn horn, and porcupine quills to ease your O.W.L. anxieties or ensuring your bones can regrow with Skele-Gro, a blend of Chinese chomping cabbage, puffer fish, and scarab beetles, it is difficult to ignore the exploitation of magical creatures. Even Essence of Dittany, one of the most powerful healing potions in the entire wizarding world, is brewed with pickled Shrake spines, despite dittany itself being a plant. 
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Within the Muggle world, these ingredients are also prevalent in our history of medicine and magic. 

For example, in Harry Potter: A History of Magic, Roger Highfield, author of The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works, notes that the use of a bezoar (a hard “rock” made up of partially digested substances found in the stomachs of goats) was commonly used as a counter poison. Potter fans are all too familiar with its use in Half-Blood Prince when Ron is accidentally poisoned in Professor Slughorn’s office! ​

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The Importance of Plants in Potions
 
Anna Pavord, author of The Tulip and Landskipping, reminds us in Harry Potter: A History of Magic of the importance of Herbology as a subject in teaching the magical properties of creature-friendly alternatives. 

From the variety of wild worts used in medicine to the Mandrake root as a hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac, it is through the consideration of the importance of Herbology within the art of potion-making that we begin to understand how the inclusion of plants as potion ingredients can offer vegan alternatives in the wizarding world.  

(Though we still haven’t concluded whether or not Mandrakes are sentient beings!)

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Animal Terms as Secret Code Names
 
In an article entitled Please Pass Me The Eye of Newt: What’s Really In That Witch’s Cauldron, Darcy Larum emphasises the importance of plants and herbs used as food and medicine by Muggle witches, herbalists, and alchemists. 

In particular, Darcy details how these learned potioneers would apply alternative names dependent on the plant’s attributes, growth habits, and use. 

These alternative names would be used as a secret code to protect the “recipe” of precious potions and herbal remedies from being copied by others. This was essential for witches and herbal healers, as their livelihood was dependent on their knowledge!
 
The code names would often make reference to animal species and their body parts in place of plant parts. For example, an “eye” actually refers to the blossom or seed of a plant, the “guts” represent the root, the “tail” is the stem, and “hair” is dried herbs.

Commonly used animal code names include:

For example, if a witch were to use “rat guts,” in a potion, they would actually be using valerian root, an herb commonly used to ease anxiety and improve sleep.

Unless you read your copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi over the summer holidays, you would understandably mistake these secretly herbal components as non-vegan potion ingredients!

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Potions in Our Wizarding World

Now that we know not all Potions ingredients may be what they seem, does this mean we can resume our Potions studies at Hogwarts guilt-free?
 
Unfortunately, within the wizarding world, animal-derived ingredients tend to take a very literal approach. 

It is implied that potion-making is too delicate and rigid to welcome variation of ingredients or magical ability. 

In a Pottermore article on Potions, the author confirms that such variation would not work. 

“It is often asked whether a Muggle could create a magic potion, given a Potions book and the right ingredients. The answer, unfortunately, is no. There is always some element of wandwork necessary to make a potion.”
 
In Season 1, Episode 7 of ProtegoCast, our hosts pondered this same question. It was agreed that there appears to be no discussion from the author as to alternative names or ingredients, unlike the magical Muggle counterparts explored in Darcy Larum’s article. 
 
Despite this, it doesn’t mean there’s no room for cruelty-free ingredients within the wizarding world. Although not discussed within the books, we fully believe that there are witches and wizards living a compassionate lifestyle with cruelty-free and vegan alternatives!

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Advancements in Wizarding Practices

If Dumbledore can research the twelve uses of dragons’ blood, Pomona Sprout or Neville Longbottom could very well research the use of the Nux Myristica plant for Polyjuice Potion rather than using Boomslang skin.
 
Consider how veganism has meandered into the Muggle mainstream in recent years. 

Ingredients within vegan cooking such as tofu, plant-based milks, and nutritional yeast flakes (lovingly known as "nooch") are no longer seen as “alternative” and “unusual,” but are actually quite popular and commonplace. 

Consider how plant-based food sales have grown by 45% within the last two years! 

Comparatively, there has also been a decrease in the use of animal-based ingredients within even the most “traditional” of spheres. 

The Guardian reported that supporters of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have warned that the discipline is threatened by those who continue to trade in endangered animals. 

Dr. Lixing Lao, President of the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine, noted that modern TCM contradicts the Tang dynasty experts, who stated 1,500 years ago that they believed that 100% of TCM could be derived from plants.
 
As compassionate Hogwarts students, we should deviate from our copies of Advanced Potion-Making and instead explore and embrace the world of Herbology. 

We can take inspiration from the historical magical folk who embraced the use of plants to concoct their potions without harming any magical or non-magical creatures.

Like the Half-Blood Prince, we can enhance our work by modifying what we currently have available to us. At The Protego Foundation, we like to call it "Plant-Based Potion Making!" So Accio your cauldron and let’s get brewing!



Written by Lucy McCabe

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