| Botany
Papaya is a small, erect,, usually unbranched, fast-growing
tree growing 3 to 6 meters high. Trunk is soft and grayish, marked with large petiole-scars. Leaves are somewhat rounded in outline, 1 meter broad or less, palmately 7- or 9-lobed, each lobe pinnately incised or lobed. Petioles are stout, hollow, and about 1 meter long. Staminate inflorescence is axillary, pendulous, paniculate, and 1 to 1.5 meters long. Male flowers are in crowded clusters, straw-colored, and fragrant. Corolla tube is slender, about 2 centimeters long. Female flowers are in short, axillary spikes or racemes, the petals 7 centimeters long or less. Fruit is indehiscent, subglobose, obovoid or oblong-cylindric, 5 to 30 centimeters long, fleshy and yellowish or yellow-orange when ripe, containing numerous black seeds which are embedded in the sweet pulp.
 Distribution
- Found throughout the Philippines, in cultivation or semi-cultivation, in many regions.
- Thoroughly naturalized, at low and medium altitudes.
- Introduced from tropical America.
- Now pantropic.
Constituents
- Contains many biologically active compounds; two important
ones are chymopapain and papain, believed to aid digestion; varying
in amount in the fruit, latex, leaves and roots.
- Phenolic compounds are higher in male trees than female.
- Leaf, fruit, stem and root yield a proteolytic enzyme, papain (papayotin), phytokinase, malic acid,
calcium maleate.
- Fresh latex yield chymopapain.
- Leaves yield carpaine (alkaloid); carposide (glucoside); saccharose,
0.85%; dextrose, 2.6%; levulose, 2.1%; citrates.
- Fruit
yields saccharose 0.85%, dextrose 2.6%, levulose 2.1%, mallic acid, pectin, papain, and citrates.
- Seeds yield a volatile oil.
- Study on papain reported it to be a true, soluble, digestive ferment or a mixture of ferments of vegetable origin, with a proteolytic action that is marked in acid, alkaline, and neutral solutions. It has a peculiar softening and disintegrating action on proteids, with a general proteolytic action that is of a genuine digestive ferment. It also has amylolytic action. It is considered to have greater digestive power than either pepsin or pancreatin, and can be used when pepsin is contraindicated or ineffective. Although comparable to trypsin, it does not yield leucin, tryrosin and tryptophan in appreciable quantities.
Properties
- Considered antirheumatic,
emmenagogue, anthelmintic.
- Seeds are considered antiinflammatory, anthelmintic, analgesic,
stomachic and antifungal.
- Leaves are used as tonic, stomachic and analgesic.
- Roots considered analgesic, abortifacient.
- Latex considered styptic and vermifuge.
Parts used
and preparation
Leaves, fruit and latex of trunk.
Uses
Edibility / Nutritional
- Fruit is a popular Filipino breakfast item. Lemon juice is often squeezed over the flesh.
- Makes an excellent ingredient for fruit salad.
- Used in making jams.
- Green fruit used in making achara (pickles).
- The unripe fruit is essential ingredient for tinola, a popular native soup.
- Leaves are sometimes used with soap or as a soap substitute for washing clothes.
-
Source of calcium, iron;
good source of vitamins A and B; excellent source of vit C.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, bruised papaya leaves are used as a poultice for rheumatism.
- Decoction of the center part of the roots is used as a digestive and tonic, and used to cure dyspepsia.
- Roots are used for yaws and piles.
- In the Gold Coast, roots are used as abortifacient.
- Decoction of leaves used for asthma.
- Leaves used as heart tonic and febrifuge.
-
Debridement (removal
of purulent exudate and blood clots from wound and ulcer): Apply latex
(dagta) of unripe fruit or trunk on the wound or ulcer.
- Ripe fruit eaten for laxative effect. Eat ripe fruit liberally. (May cause harmless yellowing
of the skin, specially palms and soles but not the eyes.) Green fruit is also used as laxative and diuretic.
- Ripe fruit also useful for bleeding piles and dyspepsia.
- In India, milky juice from the unripe fruit used splenic and hepatic enlargement.
- Boiled cup of chopped fresh leaves and 1 cup chopped
green fruit in glasses of water used for cystitis.
- For acne, mix 3 tablespoons of mashed ripe papaya with a tablespoon
of kalamansi juice; apply the mixture to face for 30 minutes, then wash
face with warm water.
- For worm infestation, 1 cup of dried seeds, pulverized and mixed
with 1 cup of milk or water; 1 teaspoon 2 hours after supper.
- Tea decoction of dried leaves for variety of stomach troubles.
- Decoction of boiled flowers or powdered seeds promote menstruation.
- Infusion of male flowers (left insert) with honey used for
cough, hoarseness, bronchitis, laryngitis and tracheitis: a spoonful
every hour.
- Poultice of roots used for centipede bites.
- In the West Indies, powdered seeds used as vermifuge.
- Infusion of flowers used as emmenagogue, pectoral and febrifuge.
- In India and Sri
Lanka, green papaya is used as contraceptive and abortifacient.
- In southern Nigeria, aqueous extract
of unripe papaya taken by sickle cell patients for its "antisickling"
activity.
- Papain used for gastric juice deficiency, dyspepsia, intestinal irritation, in doses of 1 to 5 grains. Used in solution to dissolve fibrinous membranes in croup and diphtheria. Applied to ulcers and fissures of the tongue. In pigment form prepared with borax and water, used to remove warts, corns, or other horny excrescences of the skin. Papain also used as anthelmintic; also used for warts, epithelioma and tubercles.
- In India and among the Malays, milky juice is applied to the os uteri to induce abortion.
- Latex used as styptic and vermifuge.
Others
- Meat tenderizer: Mix the peelings of the unripe fruit or
latex with raw meat before cooking. The enzyme "papain" is
a main ingredient in commercial meat tenderizers.
- Papain is also the main ingredient of an ointment popularly
used as a topical application for cuts, rashes, stings and burns.
- Food: Eat unripe or ripe fruit.
- Cosmetics: Ripe fruit used as cosmetic; pulp used as skin soap. Juice of fruit pulp used for freckles caused by the sun.
- Young leaves of papaya are sometimes steamed and eaten like
spinach.
- Seeds are edible, sharp and spicy.
Dengue
· Web grapevine blogs tell of the use of raw papaya leaf
juice in patients with dengue – two leaves, cleaned, pounded and
squeezed our of a cloth for a two tablespoonfuls serving, once a day.
Reports of improvement in the decreased platelet counts –some
are rather dramatic – are attributed to the use of the papaya
leaf juice. Bioactive chemicals reported in the leaf are: carpaine,
carposide, dehydrocarpaine, flavonols, pseuudocarpaine and tannins.
Other than a Nigerian folkloric use of the aqueous extract of the unripe
papaya for its "anti-sickling" effect, a search failed to show
any study on Carica papaya's effect on the platelet pathway. (Also see:
Gatas-gatas and the folk medicine grapevine
reports on use for dengue.)
Studies
• Phytochemicals: Chemical Profile of Unripe Pulp of Carica
papaya: Phytochemical analysis of the mature unripe pulp of C papaya
yielded minerals in considerable quantities and the presence of saponins
and cardenolides that explains its astringent therapeutic uses.
• Toxicity study: A study to
evaluate the toxicity of aqueous extract of unripe papaya – consumed
for its anti-sickling effect by some sickle cell patients – showed
no adverse effects or evidence of toxicity on the organ functions in
rats.
• Hypotensive: Blood pressure
depression by the fruit juice of Carica papaya (L.) in renal and DOCA-induced
hypertension in the rat: Study showed significant lowering of mean arterial
pressure, more than hydralazine. It concludes that the fruit juice of
C papaya contains antihypertensive agent/s which exhibits mainly alpha-adrenoreceptor
activity.
• Antihemolytic: Antihemolytic
action of an extract of Carica papaya bark. Possibilities of use in
glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiencies.
• Antioxidant / Antiulcer: (1)
Study of the aqueous extract on alcohol-induced acute damage and the
immediate blood oxidative stress level in rats showed that Cp may potentially
serve as a good therapeutic agent against gastric ulcer and oxidative
stress. (2) Study on the antiulcerogenic activities of Cp extract on
aspirin-induced ulcer in rats showed reduced ulcer index, lipid peroxide
levels and alkaline phosphatase activity in rats. It suggests Cp may
exert gastroprotective effects by free radical scavenging action and
presents a therapeutic potential in the treatment of gastric diseases.
• Anthelmintic / Jejunal Contraction
Modulation : Study of an ethanol extract of C papaya
seeds caused concentration-dependent inhibition of jejunal contraction
which was significantly irreversible. Benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC)is
the main bioactive compound responsible for its anthelmintic activity.
The results show that papaya seed extract and BITC are capable of weakening
the contractile capacity of isolated rabbit jejunum and concludes that
the anthelmintic efficacy level may also cause impairment of intestinal
functions.
• Antisickling Property: Study
on the methanolic leaf extracts of Cp showed reduction of hemolysis
and protection of erythrocyte membrane stability under osmotic stress
conditions. Pretreatment with Cp leaf extract inhibited formation of
sickle cells under severe hypoxia. The results indicate the feasibility
of Cp as an attractive candidate for Sickle Cell Disease therapy.
• Nephroprotective Property:
Study showed the aqueous seed extract of Cp has nephroprotective
effect on carbon tetrachloride renal-injured rats, possibly mediated
through any of the phytocomponents through either an antioxidant and/or
free radical scavenging mechanism/s.
• Wound Healing Property:
Study showed the papaya latex formulated in the
Carbopol gel, based on hydroxyproline content, wound contraction and
epithelialization time, to be effective in the treatment of burns and
supports its traditional use.
• Pregnancy Concerns:
A study was done to evaluate the safety of papaya
consumption in pregnancy. Ripe papaya consumption showed (1) no significant
difference in the number of implantation sites and viable fetuses in
papaya fed rats relative to control (2) no fetal or maternal toxicity
in all groups (3) No significant contractile effect on uterine smooth
muscles. However, crude papaya latex (1) induced spasmodic contraction
of the uterine muscles similar to oxytocin and prostaglandin F2a. Results
suggest, ripe papaya consumption pose no significant danger during pregnancy.
However, unripe or semi-ripe papaya that contains high concentration
of latex produces marked uterine contraction and may be unsafe during
pregnancy.
• Male Infertility:
Study of the alkaloid extract of Cp seeds
prevented ovum fertilization, reduced sperm cell counts, sperm cell
degeneration and induced testicular cell lesion, changes that induce
reversible male infertility and a potential for a pharmaceutical male
contraceptive.
• Leaf Extract Acute Toxicity Study: Acute toxicity study of Carica papaya leaf extract did not cause death or acute adverse effects. However hemoglobin, hematocrit, RBC, and total proteins were significantly increased suggesting dehydration.
• Dried Seeds / Anthelmintic: Study evaluated air-dried papaya seeds on human intestinal parasitosis showed efficacious results without significant side effects.
• Hepatoprotective: Study of Carica papaya fruit extract showed significant dose-dependent hepatoprotection in carbon tetrachloride hepatotoxic rats.
• Pawpaw Wine: Wine produced from pawpaw had similar taste and characteristics with natural palm wine. It can be produced for immediate consumption or preserved by refrigeration.
Availability
In the rural areas,
a common backyard fruit tree.
Small and large scale commercial production.
Perennial market produce.
Tinctures and seed extracts in the cybermarket.
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