PASSION FLOWER (Passiflora incarnata) *Organic herb for horses - anxiety soother, tension settler, balance restorer

Benefits of Passionflower for Horses

The calm within the chaos - Passionflower is one of nature’s most effective botanicals for anxiety, stress, and restless minds. A stunning flower with profound nervine power, it works where nervous tension hits hardest.

Please note this is a nutritional, functional horse food supplement and not veterinary medicine. For more on this, see Dr Kellon's Horse Sense - Nutrition is not 'Alternative' Therapy .

Find Passionflower in the EquiNatural range

Here’s where you’ll also find Passionflower in our supplement support for horses:

• MellowMare - natural organic hormone harmony for calmer, happier mares
• StressTonic - natural support for equine chronic stress resilience

💧Organic Passionflower Herb Tincture

Our human-grade, certified organic tinctures give you a ready-to-absorb potent source of phytonutrients at the highest-strength available, for immediate absorption straight into the bloodstream and to the body’s cells.

• Passiflora incarnata (Passion Flower)
• Herb
• Infused 1:3 35%
• Organically Grown

~ Feed Guide - passionflower tincture for horses

• 6ml/100kg bodyweight, daily in feed.
• ♻️ Our tinctures come in a heat-sealed, twin-neck, child-resistant HDPE plastic dosing bottle, complete with dosing chamber. *HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) plastic is 100% recyclable, and energy-efficient to produce. Safe for food/water storage, it reduces waste and emissions while resisting wear. A top sustainable choice to match the EquiNatural ethos.

🌿Organic Dried Passionflower Herb

Grown, harvested and dried without the use of agri-chemicals, non-irradiated and GMO free - see our Quality page for Quality Management & Certification Documents.

• Passiflora incarnata (Passion Flower)
• Herb
• Organic Cultivated
• Origin France

~ Feed Guide - dried passionflower herb for horses

• 5g/100kg bodyweight per day, i.e. 25g for a 500kg horse.
• Want a scoop? You can add a scoop to your basket during checkout.
• ♻️Supplied in a 100% fully recylable, resealable, food-grade foil pouch for freshness.

Footnotes

• Laboratory tested for identification and compliance to the British and European Pharmacopoeia standards.
• Human grade.
• Please be aware that if you're purchasing our dried botanicals for human use, our dried range is cut to appropriate sizes for feeding to horses.
• ♻️ Eco Note: Our packaging is recyclable and refillable.
• 🧊 Storage Tip: Keep cool and dry.

Functional Nutritional Value

Constituents: Flavonoids including apigenin, luteolin, scopoletin, 0.825% apigenin and luteolin glycosides, vitexin, isovitexin and their C-glycosides, kaempferol, quercetin, and rutin; maltol; cyanogenic glycosides (gynocardin) ; indole alkaloids including up to 0.1% – 0.9% harman alkaloids including harmane, harmaline, and harmol; amino acids (including GABA); fatty acids (including linoleic, linolenic, palmitic), phenolic acid; formic and butyric acids; coumarins; phytosterols; volatile oil

Clinical Considerations

Passionflower is a gentle, calming nervine herb that most horses tolerate very well. It simply isn’t suitable for competing horses or pregnant mares, and care is needed if your horse is on heart or sedative medications.

Advisories

• Passionflower is a nutritional nervine that supports calmness and nervous-system balance.
• Suitable for short- or longer-term use as part of a stress, hormonal, or behavioural support plan.
• Beneficial for horses showing tension-linked digestive tightness, as passionflower supports gut–nerve regulation.

Contraindications

• Not permitted in competition. Passionflower is considered a controlled/banned substance due to its mild sedative and anxiolytic actions.
• Not recommended for pregnant or nursing mares because of historic caution with sedative and uterine-modulating botanicals.
• Avoid in horses with known bradycardia (slow heart rate) or unusually low blood pressure.
• Not suitable for horses with advanced liver disease without veterinary oversight, due to its mild hepatic metabolism involvement.

Competition Advisory

• Passionflower is now listed as a controlled/forbidden substance by most governing bodies (FEI, BE, BD, etc.).
• Always stop feeding well within the withdrawal window for your discipline.

Passionflower in History & Tradition

No doubt about it - no other herb wears beauty and serenity with such elegance as Passionflower, the ethereal bloom of Passiflora incarnata. Behind its intricate floral display lies a deep legacy of therapeutic calm - a nervine powerhouse long revered for its ability to gently soothe the nervous system, settle the heart, and support restful sleep.

Used across continents for centuries, Passionflower's specific affinity lies with neurological imbalances and the physiological fallout of mental tension - from panic and palpitations to tension-induced insomnia, spasms, and emotional burnout.

Its unique action is described not as sedative in the narcotic sense, but depressive in the true physiological sense- calming overactivity in the medulla oblongata , the brainstem structure that influences sleep, blood pressure, heart rate, digestion, and respiration. This gives Passionflower a very specific place in protocols for stress-exacerbated digestive disorders, emotional respiratory tension, and even neuro-visceral colic.

In traditional medicine, it’s described as supporting restorative sleep without residual dullness, allowing the body to enter parasympathetic mode naturally - like a gentle override switch for an overworked nervous system. A 2011 clinical trial (Ngan & Conduit) confirmed Passionflower’s benefits in improving sleep quality in healthy adults, even with only mild disruptions.

Passionflower’s calm also reaches the heart. By slowing the pulse and easing palpitations, it can offer grounding support during episodes of anxiety, nervous agitation, and emotional surges. A placebo-controlled clinical trial (Akhondzadeh et al., 2001) found it was as effective as oxazepam, a benzodiazepine drug, in treating generalised anxiety disorder - but without impairing work performance.

Herbalist Matthew Wood notes that Passionflower doesn’t induce drowsiness like a narcotic but rather helps “ cut out internal chatter, ” improving concentration while also enabling restorative rest - a dual benefit supported by later studies (Movafegh et al., 2008).

This adaptogenic nervine herb is now increasingly recognised in withdrawal protocols for benzodiazepines and opioids, due to its ability to bind to GABA, benzodiazepine, and opioid receptor sites(Wolfman, Dhawan, Nassiri-Asl). These properties make it a powerful ally for horses dealing with chronic stress, past trauma, or nervous system dysregulation.

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