Is passion fruit safe during pregnancy?

Nobody knows from research, because we found no study of passion fruit in pregnant women at all. The pregnancy warning that turns up in searches belongs to passionflower, Passiflora incarnata, a medicinal herb sold as tea and extract. The NIH says that herb should not be used in pregnancy because it may cause uterine contractions. Passion fruit comes from Passiflora edulis, a different species, and that warning says nothing about it. The cautions that do apply are latex allergy and fresh juice that has not been pasteurized.

Unsettled. The absence of a study is not evidence of safety. Passion fruit has never been tested in pregnancy, in trials or in cohorts, so there is no measured risk and no measured benefit to report. What this page can do is separate the fruit from the herb and name the cautions that rest on real data.

What the trials found

There are none in people. A search of PubMed for passion fruit or Passiflora with pregnancy, gestation or lactation terms returned nothing, and a wider search of Europe PMC found no clinical study. The only pregnancy study is in rats. Pregnant rats were given a passion fruit extract rich in polyphenols during the last week of gestation and the first week of lactation, and the study then looked at their pups after a brain injury induced on purpose. It is an extract, in rats, after an injury people do not choose, so whatever it found tells us nothing about eating the fruit in pregnancy.

Who should be careful

People with latex allergy. Among 136 patients with documented immediate-type latex allergy, 69.1 percent carried antibodies to fruit, and passion fruit was one of the fruits whose allergens cross-react with latex. That is a blood test result, not a test of eating the fruit, so it shows a possible trigger and not a certain one. It applies to anyone with latex allergy, pregnant or not.

Fresh juice. The FDA warns that pregnant women risk serious illness, even death, from untreated juice, and advises pasteurized or otherwise treated juice instead. Passion fruit is not named on that page, and fresh-squeezed passion fruit juice sold without treatment falls under the same advice.

Not for everyone. If you have latex allergy, or have reacted to banana, avocado, kiwi or chestnut, treat passion fruit as a possible trigger. Drink passion fruit juice pasteurized. Avoid passionflower tea and supplements in pregnancy, which is the herb and the one with a warning attached.

What expert bodies say

We found no statement on passion fruit in pregnancy from ACOG, RCOG, NICE, EFSA, the WHO or the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. The NIH herbal medicine center covers the herb only. It says passionflower should not be used during pregnancy, and in the same page rates it likely safe when used as a flavoring in food. That rating is about the herb used in small amounts, and the page says nothing about the fruit.

How we searched

Searched: a local copy of PubMed for passion fruit, passionfruit, Passiflora edulis, maracuja and Passiflora with pregnancy, gestation, lactation and fetal terms, which returned no records. Searches for passion fruit with allergy, latex and toxicity returned 4, and passion fruit on its own returned 22, none in pregnancy. Europe PMC returned 321 records, and the first 25 read by title held one rat study, one study of seed oil in fish embryos and nothing clinical. The clinical trials registry had nothing relevant. Search run on 7 October 2026.

Included: the NIH passionflower page, the FDA page on juice safety, a study of fruit antibodies in latex allergy and the rat study.

Excluded: the fish embryo study of seed oil, a case report that mentions passion fruit only in its introduction, a latex study with no abstract, a survey of passionflower supplements, and trials of passion fruit peel extract in arthritis and asthma, which are about the peel and not about pregnancy.

What we read: abstracts, and the NIH and FDA pages, each fetched twice. We opened the full text of a Brazilian study of herbal medicine use in pregnancy, and it does not name passion fruit.

What we could not get: any human data on passion fruit in pregnancy, any expert body statement on the fruit, and any human evidence on the cyanogenic compounds reported in the unripe fruit and rind.

What would change this answer

Any human study of passion fruit or its juice in pregnancy, for example its effect on blood sugar in women with gestational diabetes, or allergic reactions. None is registered.
Human data on unripe fruit and rind, where cyanogenic compounds are reported. We found none.
A statement from an expert body that separates the fruit from the herb, since the confusion between them is what most people searching this question run into.

More on the juice made from this fruit: Passion fruit juice.

The food behind this question

Passion fruit: the research is about the peel, not the pulp — numbers, evidence and safety
Passion fruit juice: a vitamin C juice known mostly by proxy — numbers, evidence and safety

The same question for other foods (pregnancy)

Sources

ev-pfpg-01 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer fact sheet · n = —
Passionflower should not be used during pregnancy as it may induce uterine contractions and possibly lead to other problems.
Who: pregnant women using passionflower herb (tea, extract)
Effect: avoid the herb in pregnancy; possible uterine contractions
Certainty: The page covers Passiflora incarnata and never mentions passion fruit (Passiflora edulis); the warning is often wrongly applied to the fruit.
NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Passionflower, page updated April 2025 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-pfpg-02 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer fact sheet · n = —
Passionflower is likely safe when it's used as a flavoring in food.
Who: general population
Effect: likely safe as a food flavoring
Certainty: Not pregnancy-specific and about the herb species; no agency rates passion fruit pulp in pregnancy.
NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Passionflower, page updated April 2025 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-pfpg-03 · Observational data · serological study with questionnaire, latex-allergic patients · n = 136
Cross-reacting IgE antibodies recognizing latex and fruit allergens (papaya, avocado, banana, chestnut, passion fruit, fig, melon, mango, kiwi, pineapple, peach, and tomato) were demonstrated by RAST-inhibition tests.
Who: 136 patients with clinically relevant immediate-type latex hypersensitivity
Effect: IgE cross-reacting between latex and passion fruit, among 12 fruits
Certainty: Applies to people with latex allergy, pregnant or not; latex exposure is common in obstetric care.
Allergy, 1997 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
ev-pfpg-04 · Position of an expert body · agency consumer guidance · n = —
While most people's immune systems can usually fight off the effects of foodborne illness, children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems (such as transplant patients and individuals with HIV/AIDS, cancer, or diabetes) risk serious illnesses or even death from drinking untreated juices.
Who: children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems
Effect: choose pasteurized or otherwise treated juice
Certainty: General juice advice; passion fruit is not named on the page.
US FDA, What You Need to Know about Juice Safety, content current as of 03/05/2024 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the section
ev-pfpg-05 · Laboratory or animal data · animal experiment, maternal oral supplementation · n = —
Pregnant rats received oral supplementation with a passion fruit extract of defined polyphenolic composition during the last week of gestation and the first week of lactation.
Who: pregnant rats and their pups with induced neonatal hypoxia-ischemia
Effect: outcomes in pups after induced hypoxia-ischemia; not quoted on this card
Certainty: Rat study of a polyphenol-rich extract, not of eating the fruit; no human pregnancy data exist.
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 2026 · checked 2026-10-07 · we read the abstract
pfru-r5-06 · Observational data · case-control serology study with RAST-inhibition testing · n = 136
Fruit-specific IgE antibodies were detected in 69.1% of serum samples. Cross-reacting IgE antibodies recognizing latex and fruit allergens (papaya, avocado, banana, chestnut, passion fruit, fig, melon, mango, kiwi, pineapple, peach, and tomato) were demonstrated by RAST-inhibition tests.
Who: 136 patients with well-documented immediate-type hypersensitivity to latex proteins
Effect: fruit-specific IgE in 69.1% of sera, 42.5% reported symptoms after eating these fruits, IgE found in only 32.1% of those with symptoms
Certainty: Serology, not food challenge. The authors themselves say serologic tests predict food allergy poorly in latex-allergic patients.
Allergy, 1997 · checked 2026-09-24 · we read the abstract

How this page was made. Evidence was extracted from primary sources into cards, every number was re-checked against the source, and the text was written from those cards. Bioma Learn has no human medical reviewer at this time, and we say so rather than invent one. Methodology. This is information, not medical advice.