Passiflora incarnata 2.5:1 extract: passionflower in a 5 ml bottle
The passionflower behind this extract, Passiflora incarnata, is a climbing vine from the southeastern and south central United States. Using tendrils it hauls itself up through shrubs and fence lines to around three metres. In the colder parts of its range the plant dies back to the ground every winter and pops up again in spring, which is how it earned the name maypop. Its flower is impossible to mistake: a crown of thread like purple and white segments rings the centre and all but hides the petals behind it. Later comes an egg shaped, yellowish green fruit about the size of a hen's egg. The genus name Passiflora dates from the sixteenth century, when missionaries in Latin America used the structure of the bloom to illustrate the passion of Christ.
For this bottle the aerial parts of that plant have been worked into a liquid extract at a ratio of 2.5:1. That figure tells you how much plant material sits in the liquid: roughly two and a half grams of herb per millilitre, so two and a half times what a plain 1:1 tincture holds. You therefore need less of it for the same amount of starting material, and a 5 ml bottle lasts a long while. Globalherbs prepares this series of small single herb bottles. In North America passionflower was traditionally brewed as a tea, and a tincture keeps that same herb in a form you can measure precisely.
Dosing and storage
Shake the bottle briefly before use and measure a few drops into a glass of water or a cup of tea; under the tongue works too. Start with a small amount, all the more because this extract is stronger than the 1:1 version, and see how you get on. Follow the directions on the label. Keep the bottle tightly closed, cool, dry, dark and out of reach of young children. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding or on medication, talk to your doctor first. Do not combine herbal extracts with alcohol and do not drive after taking them.
Which passionflower suits you
Avalon Magic Plants carries passionflower in five shapes side by side. This 5 ml bottle is the strongest tincture; next to it sits the Passiflora incarnata 1:1 extract in a 10 ml bottle, which stays closer to the herb itself. If you would rather work with the leaf, there is Passion flower in a 20 gram bag, and for powder there are the 5X and 50X extracts of 3 grams plus a 20 percent alkaloid extract. The same series of 5 ml bottles also holds the Dream herb 2:1 extract of Calea zacatechichi and the Wormwood 2:1 extract. Everything leaves our warehouse discreetly packed.
