HERBAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS – Carica papaya (PAPAYA)

Papaya is cultivated for its ripe fruits favored by tropical people as breakfast fruit and as an ingredient in jellies preserves or cooked in various ways; juice makes a popular beverage; young leaves shoots and fruits cooked as a vegetable. Latex used to remove freckles. Bark used for making rope. Leaves used as a soap substitute are supposed to remove stains. Flowers eaten in Java. Papain the proteolytic enzyme has a wealth of industrial uses. It has milk-clotting (rennet) and protein digesting properties. Active over a wide pH range papain is useful in medicine combatting dyspepsia and other digestive orders. In liquid preparations it has been used for reducing enlarged tonsils.