Passiflora � Passion Flower
USD 1926.
Compiled and Edited by Ivor Hughes.
PASSIFLORA. N.F. PASSION FLOWER Passiflor. [Passion Vine]
" Passion Flower is the dried flowering and fruiting top of
Passiflora incarnata Linne (Fam. Passifloracea). Passion Flower contains
not more than 5 per cent, of stems over 8 mm. in diameter or other foreign
matter." N.F.
Wild Passion Flower; May-pop.
The Passiflora incarnata is a climbing perennial herb, indigenous to
the southern United States, with broadly cordate-ovate, palmately
three-lobed leaves and solitary large flowers, the calyx bearing in its
throat five white petals and a fringe, called the corona, which is of a
purplish or pinkish color. The fruit is a yellowish berry about the size
of a hen's egg. The whole of the over ground portions are employed.
Commercial supplies of this drug come from North Carolina and Virginia.
Description and Physical Properties. - " Unground Passion
Flower.�Stems glabrous or slightly pubescent above, striate, from 6 to 8
mm. in diameter, of variable length, woody, hollow, the cavity about
one-half the diameter; bark very thin, greenish or purplish; wood very
porous and bordered on the inner side by a thin layer of pith; fracture of
the wood uneven, of the stem smooth, of the bark coarsely fibrous. Leaves
more or less broken, rather thick, glabrous or often pubescent, when
entire nearly orbicular in outline, base cordate, deeply three to
five-lobed, lobes ovate, finely serrate, petioles from 1 to 5 cm. in
length, with two glands near the apex. Tendrils numerous and closely
coiled. Flowers solitary, axillary, peduncles as long as the petioles,
usually three bracted; calyx cup-shaped, with four to five lobes; lobes
linear, imbricated, cuspidate, corona of the fresh flowers purplish;
petals four to five, yellow; ovary oblong, stalked; stamens monadelphous
in a tube about the stalk of the ovary, separated above, anthers narrow,
versatile. Fruit from 4 to 5 cm. in length, an ovoid, many-seeded berry;
externally green or yellow, shriveled and wrinkled; seeds flat, ovate,
yellowish to brown arilled. Odor and taste slight.
"Powdered Passion Flower.- Light green; numerous thin-walled
non-glandular hairs, 1- to several celled, up to about 0.450 mm. in
length; numerous fragments of stem tissue composed of pith and wood
parenchyma, trachesa with spiral and reticulate markings or simple pores
and fibers; fragments of leaf tissue composed of chlorenchyma and
epidermal cells with stomata from 0.020 to 0.035 mm. in length; calcium
oxalate rosettes from 0.010 to 0.030 mm. in diameter." N. F.* We have
no knowledge of the nature of the active principle of this drug.
Uses. The passion-flower was introduced into medicine about 1840 by
Doctor Phares of Mississippi. It is used as a nerve sedative to allay
general restlessness, to relieve insomnia, and in the relief of certain
types of convulsions and spasmodic disorders. It is also attributed with
anodyne properties and is used in the treatment of various neuralgias.
While there is considerable evidence that this drug possesses some
therapeutic virtue, it has not been carefully studied. I. Ott (Medical
Bulletin, Dec., 1898) finds that it is a depressant to the motor side
of the spinal cord, but increases the rate of the respiration, and that it
has very little effect upon the circulation, only temporarily reducing the
arterial pressure.
Dose, three to ten grains (0.2-0.65 Gm.).
Off. Prep. - Tinctura Passiflorae, N. F.
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