Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Pregnant women may eat ripe papaya fruit in moderation but should stay away from papaya latex and medicinal doses of the herb’s leaves. It was used in many cultures as a menstruation promoter and labor inducer. In addition, one study in which papain was administered orally to experimental animals shows that it causes birth defects and fetal death in animals.

Some allergic reactions, including asthma, have been reported.

Papaya latex may cause stomach inflammation (gastritis). For otherwise healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults, papaya is considered safe in amounts typically recommended.

Papaya should be used in medicinal amounts only in consultation with your doctor. If papaya causes minor discomforts, such as stomach upset, use less or stop using it. Let your doctor know if you experience any unpleasant effects or if the symptoms for which the herb is being used do not improve significantly in two weeks.

Melon Tree

If you’re lucky enough to live in the tropics, you can grow your own papaya tree.

Native to the Caribbean and now naturalized throughout the tropics, a papaya tree can reach 25 feet. Its trunk is hollow, with spongy wood and fibrous light-colored bark that is used to make rope. Its leaves are smooth, hand-shaped (palmate), and large, often 2 feet across.

The fruits are yellow-green, pear-shaped melons with tasty orange-yellow pulp. Papayas sold in the United States are typically about the size of large potatoes. But in the tropics, they grow to the size of large honeydews and can weigh up to 10 pounds. That’s where the name melon tree comes from.

Papaya leaf, latex, and fruit contain several digestive enzymes, which account for the herb’s action as a digestive aid and its ability to tenderize, that is, predigest, meat. The latex contains the most enzymes, followed by the leaves, and lastly the fruit, though the fruit still contains enough to aid digestion.

Digestive Aid - The most important digestive enzyme in papaya is papain, similar to the human digestive enzyme pepsin, which helps break down proteins. In fact, papain is sometimes called vegetable pepsin. The herb’s other enzymes include one similar to human rennin, which breaks down milk proteins, and another similar to pectase, which helps digest starches.

Ulcer Prevention - One animal study shows papaya exerts a direct effect on the stomach, helping to prevent ulcers. Two groups of experimental animals were fed high doses of ulcer-inducing aspirin and steroids. Those fed papaya for six days prior to the ulcer-producing drugs developed significantly fewer ulcers. This finding suggests papaya may prove of special benefit to arthritis sufferers who take high doses of aspirin and to people with inflammatory conditions who take steroids.

Contact Lenses - Papain is an active ingredient in the enzyme cleaning solutions that were developed to be used with soft contact lenses.

Slipped Disks - In 1982 the Food and Drug Administration approved another papaya enzyme, chymopapain, as a treatment for herniated (”slipped”) vertebral disks in the back. Injected directly into the affected area, the chymopapain helps dissolve cellular debris.

Rx for Papaya

Papaya fruit is ripe when soft. It tastes similar to cantaloupe. Have some as an appetizer before meals to help digestion.

For a pleasant-tasting infusion that will aid digestion, use I to 2 teaspoons of dried leaves per cup of boiling water. Steep 10 minutes. Drink during or after meals, especially those high in protein (red meat and dairy). Do not boil papaya leaves, as boiling deactivates the papain.

Papaya fruit may be given to children under age 2. Papaya leaf tea should be given cautiously.

Tropical Digestive Aid

Family: Caricaceae; (includes Custard Apple)

Genus and Species: Carica Papaya

Also known as; Pawpaw, Melon Tree

Parts used; Fruit, leaves, and late

Cookbooks warn that Jell-O won’t gel if you add pineapple.
The same is true if you add papaya, only more so. Both fruits contain digestive enzymes that prevent the proteins in gelatin from solidifying. Papaya’s powerful enzymes are key to its healing value as a digestive aid.

Super Meat Tenderizer

Centuries ago, the Caribbean Indians noticed that meat wrapped in papaya’s broad leaves becomes more tender. Today papaya extract is the active ingredient in most commercial meat tenderizers.

The Indians also cut incisions into mature but unripe papayas, collected the milky fluid (latex), and applied it to the skin to treat psoriasis, ringworm, wounds, and infections. Caribbean Indian women ate unripe papayas to trigger menstruation, abortion, and labor.

After Europeans introduced papaya into tropical Asia, it quickly became incorporated into healing. Filipinos used a root decoction to treat hemorrhoids. The Javanese believed eating papaya fruit prevented arthritis. The Japanese used the latex to treat digestive disorders. And throughout Asia, the leaves were applied to wounds, and the latex was dabbed onto the cervix at term to stimulate labor.

Papaya was not used in traditional American herbal medicine. But in the last 25 years, as tropical fruits have become widely available, papaya has become quite popular, and the plant’s leaves and latex have become available through specialty herb outlets.

Contemporary herbalists recommend papaya fruit and leaf infusions as digestive aids, for stomach upset, and to eliminate intestinal worms. Herbalists suggest applying the leaves and latex externally to wounds.