INTRODUCTION
The papaya(from carib via Spanish,) papaw or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant carica papaya, the sole species in the genus carica of the plant family cariceae.it has native to the tropics of the Americas, perhaps from southern Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerican classical civilizations.
The papaya is a large, tree-like plant, with a single stem growing from 5 to 10 m (16 to 33 ft) tall, with spirally arrange leaves confined to the top of the trunk. The lower trunk is conspicuously scared where leave sand fruit were borne.
The leaves are 50-70 cm (20-28in) in diameter, deeply palmately lobed with seven lobes. The tree is usually un branched unless lopped. The flower are similar in shaped to the flowers of the plumeria but are much smaller and wax-like.
They appear on the axils of the leaves, maturing into large fruit 15-45 cm (5.9-18 in) long and 10-30 cm (3.9-12in) in diameter. The fruit is ripe when it feels soft(as soft as ripe avocado or a bit softer) and its skin has attained an amber to orange hue.
The papaya is a fast-growing, small, tree-like, herbaceous plant growing to about 6 meters high, more or less. It has no branches, the stout, long petioled palmate leaves directly growing on the straight, soft trunks marked with large, rounded petiole scars.
The papaya fruit is large, rounded and oblong-shaped. It is green when unripe and yellowish-green or yellow with little spots of green
METHOTOLOGY
Make longitudinal incisions on mature green papaya fruits still unpicked, and collect the latex or milky juice.
The tool used for incising should not be made of metal to avoid discoloration. Once convenient tool is a sharp-edged bamboo knife.
Incisions should be made early in the morning, earlier than 10 o’clock. The incision must each be 1/3 deep and about two inches apart. Collect the latex in porcelain or plastic cups, not metallic container, also to avoid discoloration .
Soon after the latex has oozed out, it will coagulate. Some will coagulate right on the rind of the fruit. This may be scraped and added to the latex collected in the cup.
The collected juice is then dried under the sun, and turns into a crystal-like product which may be pulverized and stored in a container for kitchen use, maybe in a shaker used for black pepper.
Simply sprinkle the pulverized papain over the meat. Let it stand for sometimes before cooking to tenderized it.
A fruit may be tapped a number of times, every five days or so until no more latex ooze out. One agriculturist says that the native papaya, which bears a lot of milky juice.
ECONOMIC AND NUTRITIVE VALUES OF PAPAYA
1. The green papaya is commonly used as a vegetable boiled with chicken tinola, sauted with pork or shrimps or combined with chicken ginataan.
2. The raw, green papaya when grated and allowed to pickle, becomes an appetizer called “achara”.
3. The unripe papaya when boiled, mashed and mixed with calamansi juice, salt and pepper, and sugar, serves as savory sauce.
4. The ripe papaya fruit which is sweet and tangy is eaten as a dessert.
5. The ripe papaya fruit is also used as a main ingredient in fruit salad.
6. The ripe papaya fruit is an excellent source of vitamin A,B and G. fair amount of iron and calcium are also present. An average slice from a ripe papaya supplies the required vitamins A and C needed daily.
7. unripe papaya fruit has plenty of vitamin B.
8. Papaya seed can be used to garnish certain food preparations. Some people like to use the fresh ones, chopped coarsely and combine with dressings or marinades to add sparkle and flavor to salad and other foods.
9. the juice of papaya leaf known as “papain” is used as meat tenderizers.
MEDICINAL VALUE OF PAPAYA
1. Juice from papaya roots used in some countries of asia to ease urinary troubles.
2.papaya leaf when dried and cured like a cigar, is smoked by asthmatic persons.
3. an infusion of fresh papaya leaves are also used to remedy colic, a certain stomach disorder or cramp.
4. papaya leaves is used by persons to expel or destroy intestinal worms.
5. Ripe papaya fruits is a laxative , if you take papaya fruit regularly in your diet, you are assured of a regular bowel movement which is essential to good daily disposition.
6. The dried seeds when pounded and mixed with vinegar can be used as a skin irritant to lower fever.
7. The milky juice which is tapped from the green mature fruit while still in the tree contains an enzymes known as “papain” people use this in the preparation of different remedies for indigestion.
8. a decoction formed by boiling the outer part of the roots of the papaya tree in water is digestive and tonic and is much used in the cure of dyspepsia.
