If you’re looking for the best passionflower supplements to buy this year, then you’ve come to the right place.
You can also get more info by jumping to our Passionflower Supplements Guide.
Top 10 Passionflower Supplements
| #1 |  |
Oregon’s Wild Harvest Passionflower | More Info |
| #2 |  |
Now Foods Passion Flower Extract | More Info |
| #3 |  |
Nature’s Answer Passionflower | More Info |
| #4 |  |
Solaray Passion Flower | More Info |
| #5 |  |
Gaia Herbs Passionflower | More Info |
| #6 |  |
Puritan’s Pride Passion Flower Extract | More Info |
| #7 |  |
Swanson Premium Full-Spectrum Passion Flower | More Info |
| #8 |  |
Paradise Herbs European Passion Flower | More Info |
| #9 |  |
Nature’s Plus Passion Flower | More Info |
| #10 |  |
New You Vitamins Passion Flower Extract | More Info |
Passionflower Supplements Guide
Passionflower is a calming herb that is very effective for insomnia and anxiety. It has relatively few side effects.
What Is Passionflower?
Passionflower can refer to any of 500 species in the Passiflora genus of plants. This genus is comprised mostly of flowering vines, but some are shrubs. Passionflower plants produce a strange-looking flower. Most passionflower species are found in South America, but they are found in tropical regions worldwide.
It is Passiflora edulis that produces the fairly well-known passionfruit; other Passiflora species produce obscure fruits like sweet granadilla, maypop, wild maracuja, water lemon, and sweet calabash.
When one refers to passionflower in herbal medicine, it is almost always Passiflora incarnata, unless otherwise noted. This is one of the most common Passiflora species, and this is the species that produces the maypop fruit. This perennial vine with intricate, strange flowers grows wildly in the Southern and Eastern United States; it has been used by Native Americans for its medicinal purposes for hundreds of years and possibly much longer.
Passionflower is widely used in natural medicines today. The herb has calming, sleep-inducing, and muscle spasm-relieving properties. It is often seen blended together with other calming herbs like valerian, kava, chamomile, hops, skullcap, and lemon balm. Of course, you can also buy supplements that contain only passionflower. Passionflower is known to be less potent of a sedative than valerian and kava; however, valerian and kava also carry more side effects and dangers.
Benefits of Passionflower
Passiflora incarnata has been used as a botanical medicine to treat:
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- Asthma
- Fibromyalgia
- High blood pressure
- Insomnia
- Irregular heartbeat
- Menopause symptoms
- Narcotic drug withdrawal
- Pain
- Palpitations
- Seizures
For these conditions, passionflower is taken orally. However, some people also apply passionflower to the skin to treat swelling, pain, burns, and hemorrhoids.
However, only three uses for passionflower have actually been scientifically proven. Passionflower is known to be effective for insomnia, anxiety, and narcotic drug withdrawal.
Research has found that the herb improves sleep quality, and only a low dose before bedtime is necessary to achieve this benefit. Additionally, studies have also found that passionflower is just as effective as the pharmaceutical drug oxazepam for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Although in the studies, passionflower took 3 days longer to kick in compared to oxazepam, passionflower did not impair job performance as oxazepam did.
This plant’s benefits are believed to be due to its action on the brain’s GABA system. GABA is a neurotransmitter that produces feelings of calmness. Passionflower inhibits GABA uptake, thereby increasing total levels in your brain.
Are There Any Side Effects?
Most people who take passionflower don’t experience side effects. However, they are still possible. Some reported side effects include:
- Abnormal heart rhythm
- Altered consciousness
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Drowsiness
- Impaired muscle coordination
- Inflamed blood vessels
- Irregular muscle movement
- Nausea
- Rapid heart rate
- Vomiting
If you start to experience any of these side effects when taking passionflower, cease use immediately.
Knowing of possible side effects is only one component of using passionflower safely. When considering starting any herbal supplement, one should also be well-informed of other precautions. Here are some important precautions regarding the safe use of passionflower:
- Do not take passionflower if you are pregnant. The chemicals in this herb may cause uterine contractions.
- Do not take passionflower if you are breastfeeding. It is unknown if passionflower can pass through the breastmilk and harm your baby.
- Do not take passionflower within 2 weeks of surgery. Since passionflower effects the central nervous system, it could interfere with anesthesia.
- Do not take passionflower in conjunction with sedative medications, blood thinners, MAOIs, or other sleep aids.
- Do not take passionflower in large amounts.
- Use caution when taking passionflower for more than two months.
How to Take Passionflower
You can take passionflower every once in a while for occasional sleeplessness or anxiety. You can also take it on a daily basis if your anxiety, insomnia, or whatever disorder you are using passionflower for is of a more chronic nature.
You can take passionflower as a dietary supplement in a number of ways, including as tea, extract, tincture, or capsules. If you take passionflower in capsules, simply follow the directions provided by the manufacturer. However, when taking passionflower as tea, extract, or tincture, there is no one standardized dose for passionflower. But, the following guidelines for adults are a good starting point:
For passionflower tea: Steep 1 teaspoon dried passionflower in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes. For anxiety, drink 1 cup 3-4 times a day, as needed. For insomnia, drink 1 cup an hour before bedtime.
For passionflower extract: Take 10 to 20 drops, 3 times a day for a total of 30 to 60 drops. You can use the dropper to put the extract directly into your mouth, or add it to a cold beverage.
For passionflower tincture: Take 10 to 45 drops, 3 times a day for a total of 30 to 135 drops. As with the extract, you can take passionflower tincture directly or add it to a cold drink.
The exact dose that will work for you will vary depending on your metabolism, your sensitivity to medicines, the severity of your condition, and other factors. It is best to start taking passionflower at a low dose to begin with, and slowly increase the dosage over time until you find a dosage that gives results without producing side effects.
Don’t take more than 5 cups of passionflower tea, 60 drops of passionflower extract, or 135 drops of passionflower tincture in one day. To do so may be dangerous. If you have been taking the maximum dosage for some time without seeing improvement in your condition, then your body probably just does not respond to passionflower. If this is the case, try another similar supplement. Other calming herbs, as mentioned earlier, include valerian, kava, chamomile, hops, skullcap, and lemon balm.
What to Look For in a Good Passionflower Supplement
When shopping for a passionflower supplement, one choice to make is the supplement form. It is not known whether it is better to take passionflower as tea, extract, tincture, or capsule. Simply choose the form that appeals most to you. If you enjoy drinking hot tea throughout the day or before bed, then buying whole passionflower herb to make tea with may be the best choice. Another advantage of buying whole dried passionflower is that if you can buy it in bulk quantities to save money.
If not buying whole dried passionflower, another choice to make is whether to buy passionflower alone or a supplement that features a blend of calming herbs, including passionflower. Blended supplements typically have relatively low doses of each ingredient, so a benefit of a blend of passionflower with other herbs is that it may reduce your chances of experiencing side effects from any of the included herbs. However, the upside of buying a passionflower-only supplement is that if it works well for you, you know for a fact that it is passionflower that helps your condition, instead of trying to guess which ingredient in a blend did the trick.
Aside from deciding the type of passionflower supplement you want, only one real concern remains. Be sure to buy your supplement from a reputable company. Do plenty of research to be sure you are buying a quality product. Reading company reviews from other people may help. Inferior passionflower products may not be effective.
The post 10 Best Passionflower Supplements – Reviewed & Ranked for 2017 appeared first on Supplement Hound - Supplement Reviews for 2017.
from Supplement Hound – Supplement Reviews for 2017 http://supplementhound.com/best-passionflower-supplements/
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