282 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



UTILIZATION OF THE PAPAYA, 



The Papaya, a native of the Caribbean region, 

 the Gulf of Mexco, and South America, was in- 

 troduced into India in 1611, and has been under 

 cultivation here ever since. The plant and its 

 culture have also extended throughout the east- 

 ern and western tropics ; so that, few of the 

 likely regions for its cultivation, throughout the 

 warm parts of the globe, are without at least 

 some payaya trees. Though at so distant a date 

 in the history of its cultivation, a description 

 of the plant and its valuable products might 

 seem to be somewhat late and superfluous, the 

 growing importance of some of the latter may 

 be urged in favour of bringing the facts that are 

 known about them to notice again. Of these, 

 the most generally accepted is the ability 

 of the species to grow in localities, under 

 varied conditions of climate and soil, 

 in all the warm parts of the globe. The 

 papaya, however, is seen to thrive only in 

 those regions within the tropics, where 

 the heat and garish light of the sun are mellowed 

 by heavy and constant rain. The phenomenon, 

 frequently exhibited there, of showers of rain 

 falling through sheets of bright sunshine is indi- 

 cative of the climatic conditions that favour the 

 most economically-successful growth of the 

 plant. Like the eminently tropical species it 19, 

 it delights to live in the vapour-bath of a moist 

 and a perennial heat. Accordingly, it nourishes 

 only within the zone of perpetual shower and 

 sunshine in select localities that lie between the 

 isotherms of 77 degrees, Fahrenheit. Outside 

 of the limits of its indigenous distribution, typi- 

 fied, perhaps, by the verdant Antilles the papaya 

 grows to the greatest perfection on the Malay 

 Peninsula and the Eastern Archipelagoes. Three 

 other oriental regions deserve to be mentioned 

 among those in which the plaut has, so far, met 

 with factors resembling those that obtain in the 

 sunny lands of its home in the West, viz., Assam, 

 Ceylon, and the Malabar Coast. In the majority 

 of the other lands of its adoption, the unsuit- 

 ability of the factors to which it is exposed is 

 frequently revealed by a tendency to branch and 

 the excess of male over female trees. The relat- 

 ively small yield of latex (milk) from the fruits 

 and the shortness in the duration of itsflowmay 

 also be taken as due to the action of factors 

 foreign to it and its wants. As regards soil, too, 

 preference is shown for such as are rich, mellow, 

 and free ; while, for the highest success in its 

 cultivation, the presence in the soil of organic 

 remains is essential, because it is indicated. 

 The ability of the plant to recuperate from 

 the effects of tapping its fruits for the milk 

 is regulated by the fertility of the soil 

 and the amount and frequency of the rain it 

 receives. The demand made on the factors of 

 fertility cannot, however, be regarded as ex- 

 cessive ; for, though it is great, the life of the 

 plant is generally brief enough to produce a dis- 

 continuity in the strain of requirement. 



The most useful and valuable product of the 

 papaya is its large and luscious, melon-like 

 fruit ; but, though this, as a fruit, is admitted 

 to be both wholesome, nutritious, and most 

 satisfying, it is the milky sap of the unripe 

 fruit that is iprized the most at the present 



time. Though this milky sap is contained in 

 the tissues of every part of the papaya plant and 

 trickles out from the slightest bruise or injury 

 to any of them, the readiest and the freest flow 

 results from the scarification of the unripe fruit, 

 whilst it is still attached to the tree. In it, the 

 vessels containing the milk occur in abundance 

 beneath the skin and as this is thin, it usually 

 suffices to lightly score it with a knife-point 

 to intercept and liberate the milk. The milk, 

 as it flows out, may be received or collected by 

 letting it drop on to plates of glass, porcelain, or 

 other hard, smooth-surfaced material which is 

 non-absorbent and non-metalic. The layer of 

 milk received on the plate must then be air- 

 dried in a cool place. When dry, it is a flaky 

 substance which, being scrapped up from the 

 plate, is usually mixed with twice its bulk of 

 rectified spirit, filtered, dried, and stored in air- 

 tight stoppered bottles. In this condition, or 

 after further refinement, the dried milk is 

 known as papain, a substance which is believed 

 to be of the greatest use in the treatment of 

 dyspepsia, that common, yet least defined of 

 diseases which does not kill so often as it makes 

 its victims "drag, at every step, a lingering 

 pain." for many days. Papain is, frequently, 

 also known under the name of vegetable pep- 

 sin, to distinguish it from animal pepsin, the 

 prepared gastric coating of the pig. Papain, how- 

 ever, differs from the latter in the following 

 mobt interesting particulars: — (1). It is active 

 in acid, neutral, or alkaline solutions, so that, it 

 can be mixed with other ferments in a solution 

 of any reaction ; (2) Whilst it is active in neutral 

 solutions, its activity is enhanced by rendering 

 such solutions acid and, if these, in turn, be 

 made alkaline the ferment contiuuesto be ac- 

 tive still : in other words, it ispractically active 

 under all reactions and conditions ; (3). It is 

 able to act through a wide range of temperature; 

 for, beginning to act at about 50 degrees, Fah- 

 renheit, its activity rises with the rise in tem- 

 perature, reaches its maximum at 100 degrees, 

 Fahrenheit, and is not destroyed, at slight ex- 

 posure?, even at the boiling-point itself. The 

 yield of the inspissated papain is about 25 per 

 cent, (by weight) of the fresh milk. The milk 

 is most abundant in first fruits, vigorous trees, 

 and after rain. Under favourable conditions of 

 climate and soil, a single fruit may yield as 

 much as 100 grammes of the fresh milk ; while, 

 under adverse ones, ib often requires the latex of 

 50, or more, trees to yield a pound-weightlof the 

 dried material. In consonance with the gene- 

 ral truth that the study of the utilization of a 

 product can be made to advantage only in the 

 regions of its natural production, the uses of the 

 fruit of the papaya tree are found to he most 

 extensive and complete among the Caribs, the 

 natives of the West indies and the descendants 

 of the Latin Nations who inhabit the countries 

 of the continent lying to the west, With them, 

 the fruit, long before the virtues of the papain 

 it coutains were known to the world, was used, 

 as it continues to be, as an important article of 

 daily consumption. The ripe fruit is largely 

 eaten, as such, or after it has been stewed in 

 sugar and flavoured with lime or lemon-juice. 

 This is its chief application elsewhere, too, 

 though the stew and the acid-flavouring are rare. 



