Dried Passion Flower

What is a dried passion flower?

With a name like "passion flower," this plant must be kind, gentle, and soothing. Even though this statement isn't true for all sweet names, it is true for the passion flower, a beautiful plant that makes a fruit called a passion fruit.  There are many good things about passion flower. For example, it may help with sleepiness, nervousness, pain from skin irritations and burns, menopause, ADHD, and even more dangerous conditions like seizures, high blood pressure, and asthma. The plant known as passion flower, with parts growing above ground, offers various uses for natural healing and food flavoring. You may have heard of passion flower tea or passion flower extract. Passion flower is also used to make drinks, teas, liquid extracts, and medicines.

Passion flower is often mixed with other herbs that make people feel better, like valerian root, lemon balm, chamomile, hops, kava, and skullcap.  Passion flower is an annual plant that grows up. Europeans typically cultivate it, yet it originates from the southeastern regions of the United States. Maypop, apricot vine, passion vine, and passiflore are all common names for this plant.

How to use dried passion flower?

For 6–8 minutes, steep desiccated passionflower in boiling water. Ten to fifteen minutes of steeping will produce a more robust tea with increased potential benefits. Decant or strain the tea leaves from the water. An optional addition would be a small amount of honey for sweetness.

Dried Passion Flower Benefits:

Passionflower is sold as a food product for nervousness, trouble sleeping, pain, heart rhythm problems, menopausal symptoms, and ADD/ADHD. People apply it to their skin to treat burns and sores.

◉ Anxiety/Depression: If sadness is caused by the menopause, passion flower might be the best plant. Studies have shown that the alkaloids "chrysin" and "benzoflavone" in this herb increase the amount of GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) in the brain. These alkaloids also help with depressed symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. GABA is one of the chemicals that keep the brain from getting too excited and help it stay in balance. It also helps to slow down the activity of brain cells that cause sadness. 

◉ Antioxidant/Anti-inflammatory: Because it has antioxidant elements like vitexin, isovitexin, kaempferol, quercetin, rutin, apigenin, and luteolin glycosides, passion flower is a strong antioxidant. It also has trace amounts of volatile oils, indole alkaloids, fatty acids, gum, maltol, phytosterols, sugars, and phytols. One substance in particular, quercetin, has been studied a lot. Researchers have found quercetin to be highly effective in eliminating harmful free radical molecules and inhibiting the activity of enzymes that cause inflammation.  These chemicals also calm the nervous system, which helps ease pain caused by nerves, like back pain.

◉ Lowers Blood Pressure: Studies have shown that using passion flower powder can help lower high blood pressure. Drinking one cup of passion flower tea every day can help people with mild high blood pressure keep their blood pressure in check. But it's important to remember that people who take blood pressure medicine shouldn't use this plant because it can lower blood pressure to dangerously low levels.

◉ Insomnia: Passion Flower is a mild flower that can help calm nervousness and put people to sleep. You can even use it to help kids get a good night's sleep. In one study, researchers asked people who had trouble sleeping to drink a cup of passion flower tea before bed for a while. After that, they all said they slept much better. Passion flower can cause more GABA to be made in the brain, which will also lessen the nervousness that is often linked to sleeplessness. Passion flower is also known to be a muscle relaxant. This advantage means that it can ease muscle strain, which can make it harder to fall asleep.

Where can I buy dried passionflowers?

Buy dried passion flower from the health food store in the USA, Alive Herbals.

Dried Passion Flower information (at a glance):