CARICA PAPAYA Linn.

PAPAYA

Local names: Kapaya (S. L. Bis., Sul.); lapaya (Bon.); papaya (Sp., Tag.);
papaye (Sul.); papyas (Sub.); tapayas (Bik.); papaw tree (Engl.).

Papaya is found throughout the Philippines in cultivation and semi

cultivation-in many regions thoroughly naturalized – low and medium altitudes. It
was introduces from tropical America and is now pantropic in distribution.

This is a small, erect, fast-growing tree, 3 to 6 meters high. It is usually

unbranched, but sometimes, when injured, produces branches. The trunk is soft,
grayish, and marked with large petiole-scars. The leaves are somewhat rounded
in outline, 1-meter board or less, and palmately 7- or 9-lobed, each lobe being
pinnately incised or lobed. The petioles are stout, hollow, and about 1 meter long.
The staminate imnorescence is axillary, pendulous, paniculate, and 1 to 1.5
meters long. The male flowers are in crowded clusters, are straw-colored, and
fragrant; the corolla-tube is slender, about 2 centimeters long. The female flowers
are in short, axillary spikes or racemes, the petals being 7 centimeters long or
less. The fruit is indehiscent, subglobose, ovoid or oblong-cylindric, 5 to 30
centimeters long, yellowish-orange when mature, and fleshy; and contains
numerous, black seeds which are embedded in sweet pulp.

The papaya is one of the very commonest fruits in the Philippines, and is a
favorite for breakfast. Lemon juice is sometimes squeezed over the fresh.
Papaya makes an excellent ingredient for the fruit salad. Jam is made of it,
flavored with calamansi juice. The green fruit is very extensively used as a pickle
(hachara). The leaves are sometimes used together with soap substitute in
washing clothes.

Analyses of the ripe fruit show it to be fair source of iron and calcium.
Hermano reports that it is a good source of vitamins A and B and is an excellent
source of vitamin C. Hermano and Sepulveda say that the green fruit is good
source of vitamin B.

Wehmer records that the leaves, fruits, stem and roots contain a
proteolytic enzyme, papain (papayotin), mallic acid, and calcium mallate. The
leaves contain a glucoside, carposide, and an alkaloid, carpaine. The fruit
contains saccharose 0.85 per cent, dextrose 2.6 per cent, levulose 2.1 per cent,
mallic acid, pectin, papain, and citrates.

The roots are official in the Mexican (2-4) Pharmacopoeia; the leaves in
the Mexican (2-4) and Venezuelan (1,2) Pharmacopoeias; the fruit, in the
Venezuelan (1,2) Pharmacopoeia; and the latex and seeds in the Mexican (2-4).

Wurtz, the earliest investigator on the action of papain, found the enzyme
active in acid, alkaline, and neutral media. Chittenden, Mendel and McDormott
made an exhaustive study of papain and reported that it is true, soluble, digestive
ferment or a mixture of ferments of vegetable origin; its proteolytic action is
marked in acid, alkaline, and neutral solutions and also in the presence of many
chemicals, antiseptics, and therapeutic agents; it has a peculiar softening and
disintegrating actions in proteids; and its general proteolytic action is that of a
genuine digestive ferment, similar to that of the ferments of animal origin. It has
some amylolytic action. It acts in the way rennet does upon milk, and has a
pronounced digestive power at a wide range of temperatures. The ordinary
conditions of health and disease in the stomach and intestines are not liable to
check its action, while certain possible conditions may accelerate it. It has been
pointed out also that papain has greater digestive power that has either pepsin or
pancreatin, and that it can be used when papain is contraindicated or powerless.
On the other hand, Mendel and Underhill state that in their study, papain differs
from papain and trypsin. They say that although papain is comparable to trypsin,
it fails to form leucin, tryrosin, and tryptophan in appreciable quantities.

Chopra reports on the pharmacological action of the alkaloid, carpine,

found in the leaves, and says that it is not very toxic. A dose of 5 mgm., when
injected intravenously in experimental animals, causes only a slight fall of blood
pressure, which returns to the normal within a very short time. The action of the
heart is depression. The respiration is not depressed to any great extent. The
volumes of the different organs are very slightly affected, if at all. Tschirch says
that carpine has a digitalis like action.

In the Philippines the bruised papaya leaves are used as a poultice in the
treatment of rheumatism. According to Guerrero, a decoction of the center part of
the roots is digestive and tonic and is much used in the cure of dyspepsia.

The roots are used for yaws and for piles. The roots are also used in the
Gold Coast as an abortifacient. The fresh roots are rubefacient.

A decoction of the leaves is employed as a remedy for asthma. The

leaves have been used as a heart tonic and febrifuge. The leaves dipped in hot
water or warmed over a fire are applied locally for nervous pains. Bruised leaves
applied as a poultice are said to reduce elephantoid growths. The fresh leaves
have been used as a dressing for foul wounds. In the Gold Coast an infusion of
the dried leaves is drunk to cure stomach troubles.

An infusion of the flowers is reported to have emmenagogue, febrifuge,

and pectoral properties.

The use of papaya for medicinal purposes ids traced back to the early
Caribeans, who have long employed the ripe fruit as a cosmetic. The remarkable
complexion of these people is attributed to the use of the pulp as a skin soap.
The juice of the pulp of the fruits is used to destroy freckles caused by the sun’s
heat. Standley quotes Grosourdy, who also states that the juice of the ripe fruits
is used as a cosmetic to remove freckles. The green fruit is used laxative and
diuretic. The ripe fruit is alternative, and, if eaten regularly, corrects habitual
constipation. It is useful also for bleeding piles and for dyspepsia. The milky juice
from the unripe fruit is valued highly in India for enlargement of the seeds is used
as a powerful abortifacient and given as an emmenagogue.

In the West Indies the powder of the seeds is used as a vermifuge. The
seeds are also believed to be powerfully emmenagogue. In India they are used
as a powerful abortifacient and given as an emmenagogue.

Papain is used for deficiency of the gastric juice, excess of the unhealthy
mucous in the stomach, dyspepsia, intestinal irritation, and the like, in doses of 1
to 5 grains. It is used in solution to dissolve the fibrinous membrane in croup or
diphtheria, a solution in glycerin being painted on the pharynx every few minutes.
It has been applied with good results to ulcers and fissures of the tongue, and, in
the form of a pigment prepared with borax and water, removes warts and corns
and other horny excrescences of the skin. The milky juice is applied in India to
the os uteri for inducing abortion. It is similarly used by the Malays. The latex is
also used as a styptic and as a vermifuge. Papain is used effectively as an
anthelmintic. It is recommended to destroy warts and epithelioma, tubercles, etc.