PASSIFLORA
Botanical name:
Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima
Alternative names:
Curuba, tumbo, purush, poro poro, banana passionfruit
Main indications:
restlessness and evening calm
sleep support, in folk use
headaches, in folk use
menstrual cramps, in folk use
THIS PLANT IS PART OF THE MÍSTICO DEL RANA DORADA AND HOJAS DEL ESPÍRITU ANACONDA HERBAL FORMULAS.
Short characteristics:
This page is Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima — curuba, tumbo, banana passionfruit — an Andean vine grown for its long yellow fruit. It is not the European and North American medicine plant Passiflora incarnata, and studies on incarnata do not automatically apply here.
In the Andes people eat the fruit and brew the leaves as a calming evening tea. Folk use is for restlessness, sleep, headache, and menstrual cramps. It is not an epilepsy herb, and it is not automatically safe for children or during pregnancy. Treat it as a fruit vine with a gentle folk sleep reputation, not as a validated anxiolytic and not as a hormonal medicine. A cup of leaf tea at night is the whole story.
The usual way of use:
The fruit is eaten fresh as food. For folk tea, a decoction from leaves or a powdered dried fruit is the usual preparation.
Powdered extracts follow the label. This site sells nothing.
WARNING: Andean fruit vine, not a default children’s or pregnancy herb. Not an epilepsy medicine.
Composition
For this species the chemistry that has been opened is C-glycosyl flavonoids in fruit and leaves — orientin, vitexin, isoorientin and kin (Giambanelli 2020 on curuba pulp). This page does not lead with harmane or harmine as if they were proven here.
Traditional use
Andean fruit vine. Evening leaf tea for calm is folk use, not Amazonian master-plant work, and not an epilepsy protocol. House formulas: Místico del Rana Dorada, Hojas del Espíritu Anaconda. Related: dream herb.
Precautions
Pregnancy unknown. Do not stack with sedative drugs on a guess. Children are not a default audience. Incarnata RCTs do not transfer by genus.
Opened studies
Giambanelli et al. (2020). Phenolic profile of curuba (Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima) pulp. Antioxidants. In-vitro antioxidant / hypoglycemic work on this fruit, not a sleep trial. PMID 32708874 · doi:10.3390/antiox9070628.
Janda et al. (2020). Passiflora incarnata in anxiety and sleep: a review of human trials. Nutrients. Labeled here as another species — not this vine. PMID 33352740 · doi:10.3390/nu12123894.