# Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) *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 > **Caution.** Not for children under twelve, for want of data. King’s noted that even small doses occasionally caused vomiting in susceptible people. ## 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.” ## 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 and toxicology - **isovitexin**: among the flavonoids, mainly C-glycosides of apigenin and luteolin - **apigenin**: as C-glycosides - **luteolin**: as 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. ## 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. ## 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. - Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). *King’s American Dispensatory*, vol. 2, “Passiflora.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. - Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Passion-Flower.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Passiflorae herba (Passion Flower)*. EMA/HMPC/669740/2013, 25 March 2014. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Passiflorae herba*. EMA/HMPC/669738/2013, 25 March 2014. - Miyasaka LS, et al. (2007). Passiflora for anxiety disorder. *The Cochrane database of systematic reviews*. PMID 17253512. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Passionflower.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2020. NCBI Bookshelf. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Passiflorae herba (Passion Flower)*. EMA/HMPC/669740/2013, 25 March 2014. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Passiflorae herba*. EMA/HMPC/669738/2013, 25 March 2014. - Miyasaka LS, et al. (2007). Passiflora for anxiety disorder. *The Cochrane database of systematic reviews*. PMID 17253512. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Passionflower.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2020. NCBI Bookshelf. --- *Passionflower.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/passionflower Historical description, not medical advice.