Passionflower Uses and Plant Monograph

With its intricate purple-splashed flowers and its sprawling persistent vines, passionflower captivates our eyes and hearts. While it has only been used in western herbalism for the past couple hundred years, it has climbed its way to being a common calming herbal medicine that is used for children and adults alike.

Energetics and Indications for Passionflower

Understanding the taste and temperature of an herb can be an important step in determining the best herb for you. Sometimes this is really obvious. For example, the fiery heat of cayenne is often used for people with slow or cool circulation. Or the cooling tendencies of chickweed are often paired with hot conditions like pink eye.

In this case, passionflower is fairly neutral. It has a slightly bitter taste. It is slightly cooling (although some herbalists consider it neutral) and slightly drying (again, close to neutral). Oftentimes when herbs hover around neutral, this signifies that they can be used for a wider variety of people; however, this may not be the case with passionflower.

For People with Debility and Exhaustion

The Eclectic physicians had many specific indications for using passionflower. In King’s American Dispensatory, they stress its use for conditions involving debility and warn that it doesn’t act as well for people with excess conditions. Herbalist Paul Bergner elaborates, “Passiflora has a mixed reputation because it is sometimes ineffective. It is my opinion that this is due to ignorance of its indications rather than variability of the plant potency. It is best suited to the weak, fragile, or exhausted patient with insomnia, agitation, and/or spasm or muscular twitching. The exhaustion might come from chronic illness, debilitating fever, over work, worry, old age, etc. but there is always a fragility or exhaustion.”¹

Herbalist Jeremy Ross considers it specific for children. He also says that it can be used to “slowly strengthen the nervous system, especially in cases of exhaustion and debility.”²

For Promoting Sleep

One of the most popular uses for passionflower is for its ability to promote restful sleep, especially when the person feels overwhelmed with work or worry. One study has shown that a simple cup of passionflower tea can help promote short-term sleep.³ It is often combined with other sleep-promoting herbs like valerian, hops, or chamomile.

Another study compared the use of a three-herb formula containing valerian (Valeriana officinalis), passionflower (Passiflora incarnate), and hops (Humulus lupulus) to the pharmaceutical zolpidem (Ambien) in people diagnosed with insomnia. Ninety-one patients were split into two groups, one group receiving the herbal formula and the other receiving the drug. After two weeks, both groups had improved their sleep quality significantly and there were no significant differences between the two groups. This led researchers to conclude that the herbal formula was a safe alternative to the pharmaceutical zolpidem.⁴

For Relieving Anxiety

Passionflower is relied on for its ability to calm and soothe. One pilot study compared the difference in using passionflower versus oxazepam (a benzodiazepine sedative) in patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety order. The researchers found that passionflower was effective at reducing anxiety and, moreover, it did not have the same negative effects associated with the pharmaceutical.⁵

But what if something stressful was going to happen, like you were about to have some teeth extracted? Researchers compared the difference between passionflower and midazolam (another benzodiazepine) in patients undergoing molar extractions. Forty brave souls participated in this randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover clinical trial and were given either passionflower or midazolam 30 minutes before their surgery. Outcomes were measured with both subjective and objective tests. The researchers concluded, “Passiflora showed anxiolytic activity similar to midazolam, with good tolerability, and may constitute an important pharmacological alternative for the management of anxiety during dental treatment.”⁶

Another study showed that passionflower effectively lowered anxiety in healthy adults who were undergoing elective surgery.⁷

For Relieving Spasms

Eclectic physicians specifically employed passionflower for a variety of convulsive states including epilepsy, tetanus, whooping cough, and dysmenorrhea. Many sources say it is most helpful when used before severe spasms take hold.

To Support Women Through Menopause

One study showed that women going through menopause who took passionflower for six weeks showed fewer unwanted menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, insomnia, depression, anger, and headaches.⁸ Herbalist David Winston recommends combining passionflower with motherwort and black cohosh to reduce menopausal anxiety and sleeplessness.⁹

Plant Preparations

Herbalists most commonly use the flowers, stems, and leaves of passionflower. Some herbalists recommend harvesting it while it has both flowers and small fruits present.

Passionflower can be made into many different plant preparations. It is often used as part of a formula, combining it with other herbs to magnify its specific effects. For example, combining it with valerian for sleep or chamomile for anxiety.

Passionflower can be used as a tea, tincture, glycerite, or capsules. The herb is often used dried. The fruits are eaten as a delicious food.

Eclectic physicians often recommended small doses of passionflower. More modern sources use larger amounts (as seen below). As always, I recommend you start with a small amount and slowly increase the dose to find what works best for you.

Dosage Suggestions

• Tea: 6-9 grams daily
• Capsule: 2 grams three times a day
• Tincture (dried): 1:5, 40% alcohol, 3-5 mL, four times a day (or small doses more frequently)

Special Considerations

• There is some concern about taking passionflower during pregnancy.¹⁰
• There is some concern that taking passionflower concurrently with sedative drugs (like benzodiazepines) may potentiate their effects.¹¹

Footnotes

1. Bergner, Paul. Medical Herbalism Materia Medica and Pharmacy. Bergner Publications. 2001. ↵
2. Ross, Jeremy. Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine. Verl. für Ganzheitliche Medizin Wühr, 2010. ↵
3. Ngan, A., and R. Conduit. “A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Investigation of the Effects of Passiflora Incarnata (Passionflower) Herbal Tea on Subjective Sleep Quality.” Phytotherapy Research: PTR 25, no. 8 (August 2011): 1153–59. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.3400. ↵
4. Maroo, Niteeka, Avijit Hazra, and Tapas Das. “Efficacy and Safety of a Polyherbal Sedative-Hypnotic Formulation NSF-3 in Primary Insomnia in Comparison to Zolpidem: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Indian Journal of Pharmacology 45, no. 1 (2013): 34–39. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7613.106432. ↵
5. Akhondzadeh, S., H. R. Naghavi, M. Vazirian, A. Shayeganpour, H. Rashidi, and M. Khani. “Passion flower in the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety: A Pilot Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial with Oxazepam.” Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 26, no. 5 (October 2001): 363–67. ↵
6. Dantas, Liliane-Poconé, Artur de Oliveira-Ribeiro, Liane-Maciel de Almeida-Souza, and Francisco-Carlos Groppo. “Effects of Passiflora Incarnata and Midazolam for Control of Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Dental Extraction.” Medicina Oral, Patología Oral y Cirugía Bucal 22, no. 1 (January 2017): e95–101. https://doi.org/10.4317/medoral.21140. ↵
7. Rokhtabnak, Faranak, Mohammad Reza Ghodraty, Alireza Kholdebarin, Ali Khatibi, Seyedeh Somayeh Seyed Alizadeh, Zahra Sadat Koleini, Mohammad Mahdi Zamani, and Alireza Pournajafian. “Comparing the Effect of Preoperative Administration of Melatonin and Passiflora Incarnata on Postoperative Cognitive Disorders in Adult Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery.” Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine 7, no. 1 (October 2, 2016). https://doi.org/10.5812/aapm.41238. ↵
8. Fahami, Fariba, Zahra Asali, Abolfazl Aslani, and Nahid Fathizadeh. “A Comparative Study on the Effects of Hypericum Perforatum and Passionflower on the Menopausal Symptoms of Women Referring to Isfahan City Health Care Centers.” Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research 15, no. 4 (2010): 202–7. ↵
9. Kuhn, Merrily A., and David Winston. Winston & Kuhn’s Herbal Therapy & Supplements: A Scientific & Traditional Approach. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. ↵
10. Ozturk, Zeynep, and Cigdem Colak Kalayci. “Pregnancy Outcomes in Psychiatric Patients Treated with Passiflora Incarnata.” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 36 (February 2018): 30–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2017.11.008. ↵
11. Carrasco, María Consuelo, José Ramón Vallejo, Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana, Diego Peral, Miguel Angel Martín, and Jacinto Altimiras. “Interactions of Valeriana Officinalis L. and Passiflora Incarnata L. in a Patient Treated with Lorazepam.” Phytotherapy Research: PTR 23, no. 12 (December 2009): 1795–96. https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.2847. ↵

Written by Rosalee de la Forêt

Rosalee de la Forêt is an herbalist and author of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients Into Foods & Remedies That Heal and co-author of Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine. She’s a registered herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild. Explore Rosalee's website and podcast. All content and photos in this article are © Rosalee de la Forêt.