Carica papaya L.

പപ്പായ

Family : Caricaceae

Synonym : Carica citriformis J.Jacq. ex Spreng.

Common Names : Pappaya

Flowering Period : Throughout the year

Distribution : Native of Tropical America; cultivated in the tropics and subtropics

Habitat : Cultivated in homesteads

Uses : Fruit edible - raw or cooked. Male flowers - cooked and used as a green vegetable. The skin of the unripe fruit, the leaves, sap and seeds of the papaya are source of the enzyme papain, a digestive stimulant that facilitates the digestion of protein. Papain can be used internally, especially in the form of the extracted enzyme, to treat digestive disorders. The leaves and the fruit, especially the unripe fruit, are taken internally in the treatment of a range of digestive disorders, diarrhoea, high blood pressure and painful womb. Externally, the leaves are applied to wounds as a dressing that helps to speed the healing process. The seeds are used as a gentle purgative to rid the body of worms. The dried leaves can be beaten in water to form a soap substitute. Young leaves are used as mulch. Papain is added to cosmetic skin creams, termite control, used in clarifying beer, degumming natural silk etc.

Key Characters :

Small herbaceous tree with white milky juice. Trunk with scars of fallen leaves. Leaf blade 30-60 cm long, deeply divided into several lobes which are again divided into smaller lobes with acute apex, petiole 40-100 cm long, 1-3 cm in diameter. Plants mostly dioecious rarely monoecious with fragrant and nocturnal flowers. Male inflorescence 30-100 cm long pendulous raceme. Flower in clusters, sessile. 1.5-2 cm across and 3-6 cm long, calyx small c. 2 mm long, 5-lobed, acute. Corolla tube 3-6 cm long, 5-lobed, twisted in bud, lobes c. 1 x 0.5 cm long, creamy yellow. Stamens 10, in two whorls, outer whorl of the stamens shortly stalked, filaments c. 1.5 mm long, papillose, inner most sessile, anthers 1.5-2 mm long 2-celled dehiscing longitudinally, basifixed. In female plant 2-4 floral bud arise in the leaf axil, one of which becomes a complete flower; other floral buds fall off, sometimes one or two of them grow a little but never reach maturity, so flower seems to be solitary axillary. Peduncle short 1-2 cm long. Bracts fleshy, leaf, 1-2 cm long, caducous. Calyx united 5-lobed 5-8 mm long; acute, green and fleshy. Petals 5-6.5 x 1.6-1.8 cm, lanceolate, obtuse; stigma lobes fimbriate, c. 6 mm long: ovary 3.5-4 x 1.5-1.8 cm, some plants with female flower at the end of the branches of male inflorescence, producing elongated and smaller fruit. Fruit large spherical or pyriform usually 20-30 x 8-15 cm, turning yellow or orange with yellow or orange flesh. Seeds black, wrinkled, each enclosed in gelatinous membrane, oval in shape, c. 2 mm in diameter.