PASSIFLORA AND DANIEL’S CONCENTRATED TINCTURE OF PASSIFLORA[Y]
Report of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry
The Council has voted that the drug passiflora (passion flower) be not accepted for New and Nonofficial Remedies, and has recommended that the following article be published in The Journal. It is considered important to call attention, not only to the lack of reliable evidence of the therapeutic value of passiflora, but also to the absurdity of the claims which are made for Daniel’s Concentrated Tincture of Passiflora, a preparation which has been already refused recognition.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Passiflora
Although passiflora was introduced into medicine nearly seventy years ago, the literature concerning it is not very extensive; it is not mentioned in the standard works on pharmacology and its chemistry seems never to have been worked out. There appears, also, to be no record of experimental investigations of the drug with reference to its pharmacologic action, except an article by I. Ott,[63] who used “Daniel’s Concentrated Tincture.” Ott claimed that it lessened the reflex irritability of the cord and paralyzed motion by acting on the motor centers in the cord, and that it increased the rate of respiration. He also stated that because of its action on the vasomotor centers it reduced the frequency of the heart-beat and lowered arterial tension, but that these effects were only temporary.
On the clinical side the reports are not numerous and such as have been made do not appear to be based on very extensive trials nor on conditions of observation that would entitle them to more than slight consideration. S. D. Bullington[64] reports good results, but no cure, in one case of epilepsy, and improvement in a case of insomnia. W. J. Stapleton[65] recommends it in the form of a concentrated tincture (not the one advertised so extensively), and states that he has used it with great success in insomnia, hysteria, neurasthenia, neuralgia, nervous and physical prostration, and in alcoholism. In his opinion its action is most apparent in cases of nervousness due to causes other than pain. S. Harnsberger[66] reports two cases in which partial blindness followed the taking of potassium bromid and passion flower.
Extravagant and inconsistent claims are made for Daniel’s concentrated tincture of passiflora in the advertising literature, where it is recommended for such a wide range of diseases as asthma, typhoid fever, convulsions and paralysis.
None of the evidence is sufficient to show that passiflora has therapeutic value; hence it is deemed inadvisable to include this drug in the list of nonofficial remedies.—(From The Journal A. M. A., March 19, 1910.)