Papaya
Papaya (lat. Carica papaya) is a tree crop belonging to the Caricaceae family.
Description
Papaya is a slender and relatively short bizarre palm-shaped tree, endowed with a thin, branchless trunk, reaching a height of five to ten meters. The leaves of this plant are quite large — their diameter reaches fifty to seventy centimeters. All of them are palmately dissected and sit on elongated petioles.
Flower development occurs in the leaf axils. After some time, all the flowers turn into large fruits, reaching a length of fifteen to forty-five centimeters, and a diameter of ten to thirty centimeters.
The color of the soft, ripe fruit can vary from yellow to deep amber. The juicy pulp of papaya is colored in bright orangeish-yellowish tones, and the entire internal cavity of each fruit is densely strewn with a huge number of seeds (an average of seven hundred pieces). Also, all parts of this fruit differ in the content of milky juice. Sometimes the weight of the fruit can reach six to seven kilograms, although in cultivated varieties it rarely exceeds one to three kilograms.
When collecting fruits, you must be careful — the fact is that they secrete latex juice, which provokes allergic reactions and extremely unpleasant skin irritation in many people.
Distribution
The homeland of papaya is considered to be the north of South America, as well as Central America and Mexico. And now these wonderful fruits are grown in almost every tropical country. By the way, experimental plantings of this crop can also be found in the south of Russia (more specifically, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus).
Usage
The main use of these fruits is their consumption. In most cases, papaya is eaten raw, after removing the skin and seeds. Unripe fruits are often stewed or used to make salads or curries. And the amazing smell of bread comes from the fruits baked over the fire — this is why this crop was nicknamed breadfruit. In addition, papaya is also called a melon tree, because in its unique taste, as well as in its structure, shape and even its chemical composition, this tropical beauty is very reminiscent of a melon.
Papaya is rich in an enzyme called papain (meat fiber softening protease) and a number of other proteins. By the way, the property of the juice of this plant to destroy tough meat fibers has been successfully used for several thousand years in South America.
Papain is produced from the purified milky juice of leaves and unripe fruits. This substance is actively used to quickly improve digestion. In addition, papain is also included in the composition of the medicines “Karyopasin” and “Lekozim”, intended for the treatment of intervertebral osteochondrosis.
In addition, papaya leaves and fruits contain a certain amount of carpaine, which is the name of an alkaloid that has a pronounced anthelmintic effect. True, in too large doses it poses a danger to humans.
Papaya is also incredibly popular in tropical folk medicine, where it is used not only as an excellent anthelmintic (mainly a decoction of the leaves and roots), but also as a means of self-abortion, and also as a means of contraception. The dried leaves of this plant are smoked instead of tobacco or to relieve asthma symptoms. And in local pharmacies you can find bags of crushed dry leaves for sale for making tea. In addition, papaya juice is often used to cure certain spinal diseases.
In Côte d”Ivoire and Ghana, a decoction of papaya leaves is also successfully used as a laxative for horses. And a virologist named Luc Montagnier claims that drugs made from this fruit help prevent all kinds of viral infections.
