vni, a, 1 Pratt and del Rosario: Philippine Fruits @g 



A common product resembling grapefruit, but less succulent. 

 The segments are generally separated or shredded for salads, 

 and the fruit is preserved in sugar for jams, etc. 



PAPAYA 

 CARICA PAPAYA L. Plate VII, fig. 1. 



Erect, normally unbranched plants, 10 meters high or less, 

 the trunk soft, marked with large scars, the large palmately 

 lobed leaves crowded at the apex of the stem. Male flowers 

 slender, in pendulous inflorescences. Female flowers much 

 larger, axillary, or on separate trees. Fruit melon-like, globose 

 to oblong, green or yellow, smooth, up to 40 centimeters in length, 

 the pulp soft, yellow, the seeds very numerous, small, borne in 

 3 rows along the hollow interior. Tropical America. 



The green fruit is used for pickling or as a vegetable, and, 

 when ripe, as a melon or in salads, desserts, etc. 



The milky juice, especially of the green fruit, contains a 

 valuable enzyme first separated by Peckholt. It may be pre- 

 pared for use by drying the crude juice in flat trays exposed to 

 the heat of the sun, or a more active product made by precipi- 

 tating with alcohol and drying over calcium chloride. The dry 

 residue is marketed under the name papoid, and the more 

 active alcoholic precipitate as caricin, papain, or papayotin. 

 The proteolytic action is similar to that of pepsin, but is greatest 

 in alkaline solution, and is therefore valuable in stimulating 

 intestinal digestion. 



The leaves and green fruit have long been employed to render 

 meat more tender. The method followed is to allow the sliced 

 fruit to remain on the meat some hours before cooking. The 

 leaves impart a characteristic flavor, probably due to the pres- 

 ence of the alkaloid carpaine. 



The papaya varies in shape from the round female fruit to 

 the long cylindrical hermaphrodite, both of which are practi- 

 cally the same chemically. The male plant occasionally produces 

 bisexual flowers, and small globose fruits that are much inferior 

 in taste. 



MELON 



CUCUMIS MELO L. Plate VII, fig. 2; Plate VIII, fig. 1. Melon, Sp. Fil.; 

 Atim6n, Catimon, V. 



An annual, herbaceous, tendril-bearing vine, with small yel- 

 low flowers and subglobose to ellipsoid fruit 10 to 20 centi- 

 meters long, smooth or somewhat rough externally, uniform in 

 color or slightly mottled. Tropical Asia. 



