Potions: Done!!

My turn-in post for my first class. It was going to be a different hat, but that hat fought back massively - so I ended up making a Divine Hat, with a modified brim. The prompt was to study a potion or potion ingredient beginning with X, Y or Z. I took the easy way out, and used an actual plant - but hey, it worked!

Hello, Professors! I decided to study the potion ingredients derived from the Yucca Plant. The Yucca has various uses, both mundane and magical.

The saponin in yucca plants is the major potion-base constituent. Saponins are a class of chemical compounds, one of many secondary metabolites found in natural sources, with saponins found in particular abundance in various plant species. More specifically, they are amphipathic glycosides grouped, in terms of phenomenology, by the soap-like foaming they produce when shaken in aqueous solutions, and, in terms of structure, by their composition of one or more hydrophilic glycoside moieties combined with a lipophilic triterpene derivative. The saponin has both a water- and fat-soluble end and therefore act like soap. Poultices made from the leaves may be used to treat skin sores, inflammation of all sorts, including joint inflammations and bleeding, to fight dandruff and to prevent hair loss.

Magically, this foaming component can be found in Alia Y-acta (liniment of resolve, a comprehensive treatment for muscle sorness, especially that brought on by overexertion), it forms the base for most bubotuber solutions/washes (lessening the sting of astringent treatments), and is suspected to be the base of Lockhart's Lovely Locks Hair Tonic (reverse-engineering continues, but is thus far unsuccessful). Care should be taken, however, that any potions using a Yucca base *not* be taken internally, as there can be unpleasant lower-gastrointestinal results.


To celebrate this useful little plant, I made a Yuccalike Hat:


Here's a photo of me, and a photo of an actual Yucca plant. You can't really even tell which is which!

Actual Yucca Plant

Me

Thanks, professors! I learned quite a bit this class!
....And if I can just figure out what's in that Hair Tonic...

Hopefully, I'll have a bunch of classes and Quidditch to hand in on Monday - I'm running out of time here!