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What is Maracuya? The Benefits of Maracuya (aka Passion Fruit) Passion fruit is widely employed by herbalists and natural health practitioners around the world today for its sedative, nervine, anti-spasmodic and analgesic effects. • Relieve pain • Reduce anxiety • Relieves depression • Reduces inflammation • Tranquilizes • Enhances libido • Reduces spasms • Diuretic • Urinary infections * Who can benefit from Maracuya In South America, P. edulis is the species most used as a sedative, diuretic, antispasmodic, for convulsions, alcoholism, headaches, insomnia, colic in infants, diarrhea, hysteria, neuralgia, menopausal symptoms and hypertension. In South America passion fruit juice is also used as a natural remedy to calm hyperactive children, as well as for asthma, whopping cough, bronchitis and other tough coughs. In Peruvian traditional medicine today, passion fruit juice is used for urinary infections and as a mild diuretic. Origin The scientific name is Passiflora edulis Sims, is a hardy woody vine that grows up to 10 m long and puts off tendrils, enabling it to climb up and over other plants in the rainforest canopy. It bears striking, large white flowers with pink or purple centers. The flowers gave it the name passionflower (or flower of passion) because Spanish missionaries thought they represented some of the objects associated with the Crucifixion of Christ. The vine produces a delicious fruit which is about the size of a large lemon, wrinkling slightly when ripe. Passionflower, called maracuya in the Amazon, is indigenous to many tropical and semi-tropical areas - from South America to North America. There are over 200 species of passionflower vines. The flavor is appealing, musky, guava-like, subacid to acid. The purple passion fruit is native from southern Brazil through Paraguay to northern Argentina. In South America, interest in yellow passion fruit culture intensified in Colombia and Venezuela in the mid-1950's and in Surinam in 1975. In Colombia, there are commercial plantations mainly in the Cauca Valley. How to Use The yellow, gelatinous pulp inside the fruit is eaten out of hand, as well as mixed with water and sugar to make drinks, sherbet, jams and jellies, and even salad dressings. Our maracuya jelly can be used to obtain juice by mixing one tablespoon with water. Indigenous tribes throughout the Amazon have long used passionflower leaves for its sedative and pain-relieving properties; the fruit is used as a heart tonic and to calm coughs. * While all our products have been thoroughly inspected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these statements of nutritive benefits have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. Legal disclamer

Passion Fruit Jelly (PF01) It is widely believed to lower blood pressure. It is said in some cultures, after eating a Passion Fruit, you fall in love with the next person you make eye contact with.*