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To accompany Passiflora · Passion Flower
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5/543 reviews, including 43 left on our Etsy shop
Passionflower is fantastic and helpful, I use an assortment of herbs and this one once or twice a day is always pleasant, flower or powder is really good, it lasts a long time too as you don't need to use much. Plus, it goes with elderberry and oolong nicely as well, so you can get creative with it.
James
I love the passionflower tea. I use it often to help me get to sleep. Well packaged too. Will buy again.
Emma
I love this product. The taste is smooth and the effects are gentle. It really helped with my sleep
Emma
Read Passiflora · Passion Flower through your world
Tap a world and the whole page rewrites itself for it.
The page reads from the night side: sleep, dreams, what stays with you on waking.
✦ Passiflora · Passion Flower · in one breath ✦
The passionate one who learned quietude — she holds you while you weep, and softens the descent.
Signature INFUSEIntensity · scored out of 10
| sleep-rumination | 9/10 | |
|---|---|---|
| the evening descent | 9/10 | |
| sensuality-softness | 8/10 | |
| companion | 9/10 | |
| long crossings | 8/10 |
Register living Crown of Thorns, Cherokee uwa'ga, maypop, Flor de las Cinco Llagas · Cherokee · Aztec · Villegas-Bosio 1609-1610 · Tennessee
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⊹ FREQUENT QUESTIONS ⊹
We answer.
What is passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)?
Officinal passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a perennial liana native to the southeastern United States, food and medicine for the Cherokee, who call her uwa'ga. She has a monograph in the European Pharmacopoeia. INFUSE offers her as whole leaves, powdered extract and resin paste, organically grown and harvested in France.
Why is it called passion flower, and what is the link with the Passion?
The word passion comes from Latin passio, from Greek pathos — "that which is endured, suffering". Around 1609 in Mexico, the Augustinian friar Emmanuel de Villegas read in the flower the Passion of Christ (the 5 anthers, the crown of filaments, the 3 stigmas, the tendrils, the 10 petals); in 1610 Giacomo Bosio, historian of the Order of Malta, published the allegory in Rome, and it spread across Catholic Europe. The name therefore evokes the passion-suffering of Christ rather than amorous passion.
What is passionflower traditionally used for?
Three living lineages run through the history of the plant. Among the Cherokee, the maypop is food and medicine (raw fruits, pounded roots, boiled young shoots). Among the Aztecs in Mexico, Passiflora was described as a calming and magical plant. In Europe, she has grown in gardens since the 17th century and today has a monograph in the European Pharmacopoeia, as well as one from the German Commission E.
How do I make passion flower tea?
For whole leaves — 1 to 2 teaspoons in a cup of simmering water (~90°C), infuse for 10 to 15 minutes, strain. Drink early in the evening or 30 minutes before bedtime. The leaves can be reinfused up to 3 times. For powdered extract — 1 to 2 teaspoons in a warm drink. For resin paste — from the size of a grain of rice to that of a chickpea, under the tongue (stronger) or dissolved in a warm drink (~50-60°C).
How do I use passionflower in the evening?
Drink the tea around 9 pm, low lights, no screens. The European Medicines Agency has published a monograph on passionflower (EMA, Passiflorae herba), which reserves her for adults and adolescents over 12. Combine with Mulungu and Chamomile for the Brazilian "Sleep Trinity" formula.
What are the active compounds in passionflower?
Flavonoids are her main compounds — chrysin, apigenin, vitexin, isovitexin, orientin, schaftoside. The plant also contains maltol (an aromatic compound) and traces of beta-carbolines (harmane, harmine, harmaline) at concentrations too low for a clinical MAOI effect. Her chemical profile is complex.
All questions
What are the contraindications for passionflower?
Avoid in pregnancy and breastfeeding (lack of solid data). Avoid in combination with sedatives, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, prescription hypnotics (potentiating effect). Avoid with monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI). Caution with anticoagulants (warfarin, aspirin, clopidogrel). Stop at least 2 weeks before scheduled surgery. Avoid before driving or operating machinery. Allergy to the passionflower family is rare but possible. Long-term tolerance is poorly documented.
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In depthbotany · phytochemistry · historyRead
Botany — the vine of five hundred species
Passiflora incarnata — purple passionflower, or maypop — is a perennial vine native to the southeastern United States. It is the state wildflower of Tennessee. The genus *Passiflora* comprises around 500 species, almost all native to the New World tropics (the Caribbean, Central America and, above all, South America). P. incarnata is the main medicinal species; P. edulis gives the commercial passion fruit (maracujá).
The name "maypop" is English: the ripe fruit makes a loud pop when stepped on — a rural onomatopoeic name from the American Southeast.
The flower is strikingly complex: layered crowns (the corona of filaments), pistils, stigmas and stamens in purple and white.
A major ecological role: P. incarnata is a host plant for the caterpillars of several American butterflies — the Gulf Fritillary, the Zebra Longwing and the Variegated Fritillary. The leaves contain defensive compounds that make the caterpillars toxic to predators, while the caterpillars themselves withstand these defences.
Beware the confusion: Passiflora caerulea, the ornamental blue passionflower (from South America, widely grown in European gardens), is a different species, and the herbal tradition belongs to P. incarnata. Many European gardeners grow P. caerulea for its flower without knowing that the herbal use lies with its American cousin. P. incarnata is the species INFUSE offers — an important detail for sourcing.
A long history — Cherokee, Villegas, pharmacopoeia
The history of passionflower is one of sweeping symbolic reappropriations.
Cherokee: for the Cherokee of the southeastern United States, the maypop — uwa'ga in Cherokee — is a food and medicinal plant. Documented uses cover food (the fruit, eaten raw or as juice, and the young shoots, boiled and fried) and medicine (the pounded roots for the skin, the liver and earache, and to help wean babies). The Houma of Louisiana drank a root infusion as a blood tonic. The Ocoee River in Tennessee takes its name from Uwagâ'hi, "the place of the maypop", and hosted the whitewater slalom events of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Villegas and Bosio, 1609–1610: around 1609, Emmanuel de Villegas, an Augustinian friar in Mexico, sent drawings of the flower to Rome, reading in it the instruments of Christ's Passion. In 1610, Giacomo Bosio, historian of the Order of Malta, published them in his treatise on the Cross (La trionfante e gloriosa croce), and the allegory spread across Catholic Europe.
Modern pharmacopoeia: passionflower reached European gardens in the 17th century as a botanical curiosity. Today it has a monograph in the European Pharmacopoeia, and both the German Commission E and the European Medicines Agency have published monographs on it.
Darwin: Charles Darwin was fascinated by passionflower tendrils. In The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875), he describes the tendrils of Passiflora gracilis, remarkably sensitive to touch, which sweep the air in search of a hold.
Safety notes
Passionflower is generally well tolerated at traditional doses. Documented precautions:
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding: to be avoided — solid data are lacking, and some sources mention a theoretical mild effect on the uterus.
- Sedatives, benzodiazepines, prescription sleeping pills: documented potentiation — combine only with caution, and always under medical supervision.
- Alcohol: potentiation — avoid the combination.
- MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors): to be avoided (Winston & Maimes, p. 226).
- Anticoagulants (warfarin, aspirin, clopidogrel): caution — theoretical risk of potentiation.
- Before scheduled surgery: stop at least 2 weeks beforehand.
- Driving and operating machinery: to be avoided after taking it (possible sedative effect).
- Allergy to the passionflower family (Passifloraceae): very rare but possible.
Possible side effects at high doses: mild headaches, digestive upset (rare in the literature). Long-term tolerance is poorly documented.
Do your own research (DYOR): consulting a health professional is recommended if you have a medical condition or are receiving treatment, and before stopping any psychotropic medication.
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