of tropical America. Around the middle of the 16th century, the Spaniards carried seeds to the Philippines. From there, the papaya travelled to Malacca and India, and then to Europe, where
it was dubbed ‘the tree melon’. Now it is popular in nearly all the tropical regions of the world and is commercially produced in India, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Tropical Africa, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, and Latin America.
The papaya plant – often wrongly referred to as a tree – is a large herb growing at the rate of 6 to 10 ft. in the first year and reaching 20 or even 30 ft. in height. It has a hollow green or purplish
stem that becomes 30-40 cm thick at the base and roughened by leaf scars.
The fruit is melon-like, oval to nearly round or club-shaped. Anything from 15 to 50 cm long and 10 to 20 cm thick, it can weigh up to 9 kg. It is green when unripe and turns yellow as it ripens. Inside, there is a large mass of succulent, salmon pink flesh and numerous black, round seeds.
The fruit has immense nutritional and medicinal value. It is high in Vitamin C and is rich in folate. It is also a good source of fibre. Just one serving of papaya has 10% of the fibre we need every day. The ripe fruit is an excellent diuretic. The green parts and seeds contain an alkaloid called carpaine, used as a heart stimulant and amoebicide. The latex of the papaya plant and its green fruits contains an extremely useful enzyme called papain. Its most popular use is as a meat tenderizer.
Papain has many other practical applications. It is used to treat wool and silk before dyeing and to clean hides before tanning, and it serves as an adjunct in rubber manufacturing. It forms a part of toothpastes, cosmetics and detergents, as well as pharmaceutical preparations to aid digestion. Also, it has been employed to treat ulcers, dissolve membranes in diphtheria, and reduce swelling, fever and adhesions after surgery.
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