CARICA PAPAYA 123 



Habitat. — In the arable fields and along the banks of rivers. 

 Blooms in January and March. 



PASSIFLORACE^ffi. 



Passion Flower Family. 

 Oarica Papaya, L. 



Nom. Vulg. — Papaya, in many Phil, dialects ; Papaya, 

 Papaw, Eng. 



Uses. — The decoction of the leaves is used locally in sores 

 and atonic ulcers, followed by a poultice of the boiled and 

 mashed leaves. The natives use the cold infusion of the leaves 

 to wash clothes spotted with blood and the spots disappear 

 rapidly by virtue of the ferment papain which digests the fibrin. 

 The infusion is also very useful as a wash for sores and gan- 

 grenous ulcers, modifying their appearance very rapidly. 



Before proceeding further it is desirable to give a descrip- 

 tion of papain, a digestive ferment which exists throughout the 

 whole plant, fruit, trunk, leaves and petioles ; it is contained 

 in the milky juice which exudes from all these parts when cut. 

 This juice was studied simultaneously by Wurtz in France 

 and Peckolt in Brazil. The best method of collecting it is to 

 make several superficial, longitudinal incisions in the green 

 fruit without removing it from the tree ; immediately an 

 abundance of juice appears in the incisions and coagulates rap- 

 idly. The best time to do this is the early morning. The 

 fruit does not suffer by this process but continues developing 

 and ripens perhaps more rapidly, at the same time improving 

 in flavor, becoming sweeter ; the seeds, however, atrophy and 

 lose their power of germination. Peckolt gives the following 

 as the composition of the juice : 



A substance analogous to caoutchouc 4.525 



Awa 2.424 



