- Passionflower tea is made from the dried leaves, stems and flowers of Passiflora incarnata, the maypop vine of the American Southeast, not from the passion fruit sold in supermarkets.
- The EU herbal monograph accepts it only on traditional use for mild stress and to aid sleep: 1 to 2 g of cut herb in 150 ml of boiling water, 1 to 4 times a day, for adolescents and adults.
- The only placebo-controlled trial of the actual tea (41 young adults, one week, one evening cup) found a small gain in self-rated sleep quality, on 1 of 6 diary measures.
- The headline anxiety results come from extracts, drops and tablets, not teacups, so treat the tea as a gentle evening ritual rather than a treatment.
- Skip it in pregnancy, before surgery and under age 12, and do not drive if a cup makes you drowsy.
What Passionflower Tea Is (and What It Is Not)
Passionflower tea is an infusion of the dried aerial parts of Passiflora incarnata: the leaves, stems and the frilled white-and-purple flowers of a fast-climbing vine. It is a tisane, so it contains no tea leaf and no caffeine, which places it in the same evening family as the other herbal infusions in our tisane guide.
The name causes most of the confusion. The glossy purple passion fruit in shops and juice bars is usually Passiflora edulis, a related species grown for its pulp. A tea labelled passion fruit is almost always a black, green or fruit blend flavoured with that pulp or with aroma, and it has nothing to do with the herbal sedative tradition described here. The medicinal tea uses the green parts of P. incarnata, and the label on a pharmacy or herbalist packet should say so in Latin.
In the cup, dried passionflower brews to a pale, greenish-straw liquor with a grassy, hay-like smell and a mild, faintly bitter finish. It is not a flavour people seek out for pleasure the way they seek out rooibos or hibiscus, which is why you will often meet it inside bedtime blends rather than on its own.
Where It Grows: The Maypop of Tennessee and the Southeast
According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, Passiflora incarnata is native to the eastern United States, especially the Southeast. It climbs 6 to 8 feet, blooms from July to September and spreads by root suckers in good conditions. The egg-shaped fruits that follow are edible and turn yellowish when ripe. The common name maypop, the garden notes, comes from the loud pop the fruits make when stepped on.
Tennessee has the strongest claim on the plant. The Tennessee Secretary of State records that schoolchildren chose the passion flower in a 1919 vote and that it was formally adopted as the state wildflower in 1973. The same page lists its other common names, maypop, wild apricot and ocoee, and notes that ocoee comes from an Indigenous name for the flower that is also carried by the Ocoee River and valley in the southeast of the state.
The flower’s Christian name is older. The Tennessee page explains that early Christian missionaries in South America read the parts of the bloom as symbols of the Crucifixion: the three crosses, the crown of thorns, the nails and the cords. The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) adds that sixteenth-century Spanish explorers learned of passionflower in South America and that it entered European folk medicine as a sedative.
That makes passionflower an unusual case: a remedy whose medicinal reputation was built in Europe, from a vine that flowers across the American South in late summer.
What the EU Herbal Monograph Says
The most useful official document is the European Medicines Agency’s Community herbal monograph on Passiflora incarnata L., herba (EMA/HMPC/669740/2013, adopted 25 March 2014). The agency’s public page for Passiflorae herba states that the conclusions rest on traditional use only: clinical trial evidence is insufficient, but the effect is considered plausible and the herb has a record of safe use for at least 30 years, including 15 within the EU. A periodic review was opened in February 2025.
The approved indication is narrow: a traditional herbal medicinal product for relief of mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep. The key details for tea drinkers are these:
- Tea dose: 1 to 2 g of the cut herb in 150 ml of boiling water as an infusion, 1 to 4 times daily, for adolescents, adults and older people.
- Children: not recommended under 12, for lack of adequate data.
- Duration: see a doctor or qualified practitioner if symptoms last more than 2 weeks.
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding: not recommended.
- Driving: the monograph flags possible effects on the ability to drive and use machines.
- Interactions, side effects, overdose: none reported in the monograph.
The phrase none reported needs reading carefully. It means the regulator found no documented cases, not that the herb has been proven free of interactions. The U.S. guidance, below, is more cautious on surgery and anaesthesia.
Passionflower Tea Benefits: The Evidence Graded
Most ranking articles list six to twenty benefits without saying whether a study used a teacup or a capsule. The scorecard below does. The main source for trial details is the 2020 systematic review by Skonieczna-Zydecka and colleagues in Nutrients, which found only 9 randomised trials, with 16 to 128 participants each and too much variation between them for a pooled analysis.
| Claim | Best study | Form used | What it found | Our grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Better sleep quality | Ngan and Conduit 2011, 41 adults aged 18 to 35, one week each arm | Actual tea, 250 ml in the evening | Self-rated sleep quality better than placebo (p under 0.01), on 1 of 6 diary measures | Small but real, and the only true tea trial |
| Longer sleep in insomnia | NCCIH summary of the research | Mixed oral forms | May improve total sleep time; effects on falling and staying asleep are mixed | Limited |
| Generalised anxiety | Akhondzadeh 2001 pilot trial against oxazepam | Extract, 45 drops a day for 28 days | No significant difference from oxazepam on the Hamilton scale; less impact on job performance | Promising, small, extract only |
| Anxiety before surgery | Movafegh 2008, 60 patients | 500 mg oral dose | Reduced anxiety without impairing psychomotor function | Moderate, single-dose, not tea |
| ADHD, menopause, heart failure, fibromyalgia | NCCIH review | Various | Not enough evidence to say whether it helps | Unproven |
| Memory or cognitive harm | Skonieczna-Zydecka 2020 review | All trials pooled descriptively | No adverse effects, including memory loss, observed across included trials | Reassuring, small numbers |
The sleep trial, read closely
The study that matters most for tea drinkers was published in Phytotherapy Research in 2011 (volume 25, pages 1153 to 1159). Forty-one healthy adults aged 18 to 35 drank either passionflower tea or a placebo tea every evening for a week, then switched after a washout. They kept sleep diaries and completed anxiety questionnaires, and ten of them also slept a night in a laboratory under polysomnography.
Of six diary measures, only sleep quality moved significantly, with the review reporting a mean improvement of about 5.2 percent over placebo. The authors concluded that a low dose of passionflower tea offers short-term subjective benefit for healthy adults with mild fluctuations in sleep quality. That is a fair, modest result: it does not show the tea treats insomnia, and the participants were young and healthy.
The extract gap
The anxiety findings that power most listicles, including the oxazepam comparison, used concentrated extracts or tablets at measured doses for weeks. A home cup made from 1 to 2 g of herb delivers an unknown and probably smaller amount of the same compounds. The extract trials cannot be borrowed as proof that a cup will calm clinical anxiety. If anxiety is affecting your days, that is a conversation for a clinician, not a tea shelf.
Side Effects and Who Should Avoid It
For most adults, passionflower is a low-risk herb when used briefly. NCCIH, in its page last updated in April 2025, says it is likely safe as a food flavouring and may be safe as a tea for up to 7 nights or as an extract for 8 weeks. Those windows reflect how long it has been studied, not a hard toxicity limit, but they are sensible limits for self-care.
Side effects reported by NCCIH are drowsiness, dizziness and confusion. The cautions that matter in practice:
- Pregnancy: avoid it. NCCIH notes it may induce uterine contractions, and the EU monograph does not recommend it during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Safety while breastfeeding is unknown.
- Surgery: NCCIH says passionflower may interact with anaesthesia drugs and advises against using it before surgery without medical approval. Tell your surgical team you drink it.
- Driving and machinery: the EU monograph warns about effects on driving. Learn how a cup affects you at home first.
- Children: not recommended under 12 under the EU monograph.
- Other sedatives: if you already take prescription sleep or anxiety medicines, or drink alcohol in the evening, ask a pharmacist before adding a sedative herb on top.
If sleep trouble lasts more than two weeks, the EU guidance is plain: see a doctor rather than increasing the dose.
How to Brew Passionflower Tea
Dried passionflower is light and fluffy, so spoon measures vary a lot. A small kitchen scale is the only way to hit the monograph dose reliably. The general method for herbal infusions is in our guide to brewing tea; the specifics for this herb are below.
| Approach | Herb | Water | How often | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EU monograph cup | 1 to 2 g cut dried herb | 150 ml boiling water, as an infusion | 1 to 4 times daily, adolescents and adults | EMA/HMPC/669740/2013 |
| Sleep trial cup | Low-dose tea | 250 ml | Once, in the evening, for 7 days | Ngan and Conduit 2011 |
| Safety window for self-care | Tea as above | Not specified | Studied for up to 7 nights | NCCIH, April 2025 |
Practical steps for one evening cup:
- Weigh 1 to 2 g of cut, dried Passiflora incarnata herb into a cup or pot.
- Pour 150 ml of freshly boiled water over it.
- Cover the cup while it steeps so the aromatic steam stays in. The monograph sets dose and water but no steep time; start around five minutes and lengthen it if you want a fuller, more bitter cup.
- Strain and drink it as part of your wind-down, never right before driving.
Because it is caffeine-free, it is one of the few hot drinks that fits after dinner without trade-offs. Our caffeine in tea guide explains why true teas, even decaf, are not the same.
Pairing and Blends: The Bedtime Shelf
On its own, passionflower is grassy and slightly bitter. That is one reason it so often appears in combination. The EU also assesses Species sedativae, the sedative tea blends traditionally sold in European pharmacies, in which passionflower can be combined with other calming herbs.
If you want to compare the bedtime herbs side by side, each has a different flavour and a different evidence base:
- Chamomile is the most pleasant to drink, with an apple-like sweetness that softens passionflower’s grassy edge.
- Lemon balm adds a bright citrus note and has its own EU monograph for mild stress and sleep.
- Valerian is the strongest-smelling of the group, with its own mixed sleep evidence.
A simple home blend is equal parts by weight of passionflower and chamomile, kept within the monograph’s 1 to 2 g of passionflower per cup. Avoid stacking several sedative herbs at high doses on the same evening, and keep the same cautions on pregnancy, surgery and driving.
Buying and Storing Passionflower
Buy from a seller that names the species Passiflora incarnata and the part used, herba or aerial parts. A packet that says only passion flower, or that shows fruit on the label, may be a flavoured blend. Herbal teas sold as medicines in the EU carry a traditional herbal registration and the indication text from the monograph, which is a useful signal of standardised quality.
Dried passionflower looks like chopped green-grey leaves with fragments of stem and tendril, sometimes with pale flower pieces. It should smell clean and herbal. Discard any that smells musty or shows clumping, which suggests moisture. Store it in an airtight, opaque container away from heat and light, and use it within the date on the packet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does passionflower tea really help you sleep?
Passionflower tea gave a small improvement in self-rated sleep quality in one placebo-controlled trial. In the 2011 study, 41 healthy adults drank 250 ml each evening for a week, and sleep quality, one of six diary measures, improved modestly compared with placebo. It has not been shown to treat insomnia, so think of it as a mild evening aid.
How much passionflower tea can I drink a day?
The EU herbal monograph sets 1 to 2 g of dried herb in 150 ml of boiling water, 1 to 4 times a day, for adolescents and adults. For sleep, one evening cup is the pattern used in research. NCCIH says tea use may be safe for up to 7 nights, so take a break and see a doctor if problems persist.
Is passionflower tea safe during pregnancy?
No, passionflower tea should be avoided during pregnancy. NCCIH warns that it may induce uterine contractions, and the European Medicines Agency does not recommend it during pregnancy or breastfeeding because safety data are lacking. Safety while breastfeeding is unknown. Choose a caffeine-free alternative with an established safety record and check with your midwife or doctor first.
Can passionflower tea make you drowsy the next day?
Passionflower tea can cause drowsiness, dizziness or confusion in some people, according to NCCIH. The EU monograph also warns that it may affect your ability to drive or operate machinery. Try your first cup on a night with no early drive, keep to one cup, and avoid combining it with alcohol or prescription sedatives.
Is passionflower tea the same as passion fruit tea?
No, they come from different plants and parts. Passionflower tea uses the dried leaves, stems and flowers of Passiflora incarnata, the maypop, and is the herbal sedative studied for sleep and stress. Passion fruit tea is usually black, green or fruit tea flavoured with the pulp of Passiflora edulis, and carries none of the same claims.