Passionflower
Passion flower, passion vine, maypops, maracoc, granadilla; Passiflora incarnata of Linnaeus; in pharmacy Passiflorae herba
- Known today as
- Passiflora incarnata, the passion vine of Virginia, by Grieve’s account a perennial with three-lobed, finely serrated leaves and “flesh-coloured or yellowish, sweet-scented flowers, tinged with purple,” followed by an orange, egg-shaped berry the size of a small apple with sweet, edible yellow pulp. The dried herb is the medicine.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- isovitexin, apigenin, luteolin
- Earliest authority here
- King’s American Dispensatory
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. Not for children under twelve, for want of data. King’s noted that even small doses occasionally caused vomiting in susceptible people.
Passionflower: what was it used for?
A sedative. Grieve gives its narcotic properties as the reason it was used “in diarrhoea and dysentery, neuralgia, sleeplessness and dysmenorrhoea,” describes it as depressing the motor side of the spinal cord and slightly lowering blood pressure, and reports that with bromides it was said to be “of great service in epilepsy.”
Passionflower: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the herb as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for relief of mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep (monograph of 2014). Its assessment report finds flavonoids, mainly C-glycosides of apigenin and luteolin such as isovitexin, varying widely by source, and notes that the beta-carboline alkaloids once reported are undetectable in most commercial material. A Cochrane review of 2007 found the trials for anxiety “too few in number to permit any conclusions to be drawn.” LiverTox finds it has not been convincingly linked to liver injury.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- isovitexinamong the flavonoids, mainly C-glycosides of apigenin and luteolin
- apigenin ChEMBLas C-glycosides
- luteolinas C-glycosides
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- European Union herbal monograph (2014): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for mild mental stress and to aid sleep. A Cochrane review (2007) found too few trials in anxiety for conclusions.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Passiflorae herba (Passion Flower). EMA/HMPC/669740/2013, 25 March 2014. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Passiflorae herba. EMA/HMPC/669738/2013, 25 March 2014. Read in part · the text read
- Miyasaka LS, et al. (2007). Passiflora for anxiety disorder. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 17253512. Abstract read · the text read
- LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Passionflower.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2020. NCBI Bookshelf. Read in full · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Passionflower: what lore surrounds it?
The name, Grieve says, is from the supposed likeness of the finely cut corona to the Crown of Thorns, and of the other parts of the flower to the instruments of Christ’s Passion. Folkard tells the story for the blue passion flower of South America: the Spaniards, seeing it hanging in festoons from the forest trees, took it as a token that the Indians should be converted, and in 1610 Jacomo Bosio, writing a treatise on the Cross in Rome, was shown a drawing of a flower so “stupendously marvellous” by a Mexican-born Augustinian friar that he hesitated to put it in his book, until Mexican Jesuits in Rome confirmed the reports and he presented the Flos Passionis to the world.
Passionflower: what did the older authorities say?
- King’s American Dispensatory
- “The physiological action of passiflora has not been well-studied.” Medicinal doses, it says, produce no special effects, “but we have observed even small doses to occasionally provoke emesis.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Passion Flower.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Passiflora.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Passion-Flower.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Passiflorae herba (Passion Flower). EMA/HMPC/669740/2013, 25 March 2014. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Passiflorae herba. EMA/HMPC/669738/2013, 25 March 2014. Read in part · the text read
- Miyasaka LS, et al. (2007). Passiflora for anxiety disorder. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. PMID 17253512. Abstract read · the text read
- LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Passionflower.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2020. NCBI Bookshelf. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 7 cited: 3 read in full, 3 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 16, 2026
- Chicago
“Passionflower.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/passionflower.
- MLA
“Passionflower.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 16 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/passionflower. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Passionflower. (2026, October 16). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/passionflower
Club members keep entries on a shelf with private notes, print the plates as cards, and receive an entry by email each week. Create a free account before January 1, 2027 and all of it is yours for good. About the Club
See Also
Sharing apigenin, luteolin
Chamaemelum nobile · Pilosella officinarum · Achillea millefolium · Ajuga iva
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Felter, Folkard
Pawpaw · Pasque flower · Pennyroyal · Peony · Oleander · Pleurisy root · Peppermint · Pink rock-rose · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Passarino’s white powder (a man skilled in the spagyric (chemical) art (note XXXIX)) · Pearls, prepared (Pearls ground to a fine powder) · Pelargonium · Paschal candle · Penicillin mould (common in damp buildings, house dust, and spoiling food) · Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Historical description, not medical advice.
