Constituintes Químicos e Farmacologia do Gênero Passiflora com Ênfase a P. alata Dryander., P. edulis Sims e P incarnata L.

To compare Passiflora alata Dryander, Passiflora edulis Sims and Passiflora incarnata L, a systematic bibliography was assembled collecting literature data from 1950 to 1999 with emphasis on pharmacological studies and the main compounds in the three species, flavonoids and alkaloids. This data indicated the strong presence of C-glycosylflavonoids in all three species while flavones, flavonols and O-glycosylflavonoids were found only in P. incarnata, and rutin was found in P. edulis and P. alata. The alkaloid harman was found in all three species whilst harmol, harmalol, harmina and harmalina were only found in P. incarnata. It can be concluded from this review that P. incarnata is the most studied, and P. alata, the official Brazilian species, is the least studied of the three.