The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-02-02
The Papaya.

dpiOdu luSJ uOW vi bl5 ulSulCdl anu
therapeutical virtues of the papaya
AS the papaya Aourishes here the
following extracts will be of interest
to all. We may say in addition that
the papaya either raw or cooked has
been found of benefit by consump-
tives and those troubled with weak
ness of the lungs:
1t is as a producer of vegetable
pepsine that the Papaw is chiefly
remarkable; and in countries like
China, where, even with the help of
an ice-chest, it is difficult to provide
oneself with eatable butchers meat
in the middle of summer, it might
be we'll if experiments were made to
test its alleged qualities. In India,
it appears, old hogs and poultry fed
upon the leaves and fruit, however
tough the meat they afford might
otherwise be, are thus rendered per
fectly tender and good, if eaten as
soon as killed. In Jamaica meat is
made tender by being washed with
water to which the juice of the Pa
paw tree has been added; and
if the meat be left in such water
for ten minutes, it will fall from
the spit while roasting or separ-
ate into shreds while boiling.
From which it appears that it is
possible to carry the use of Papaw
juice too far. But actual contact
with the fruit or its juice is not neces-
sary. Captain S. P. Oliver, writing
in Nature, says, GIN Mauritius where
we lived principally on ration beef
cut from the tough flesh of the
Malagasy oxen, we we're in the habit
of hanging the ration under the
| leaves themselves; and if we were in
a hurry for very tender piece of
fillet, our cook would wrap up the
| undercut of sirloin in the leaves,
when the newly-killed meat would
be as tender as if it had been hung
for considerable time" Similarly
in South America it is known that
the exhalations of the tree have this
property, and joints of meat, fowls,
ETC., are hung among its branches
to prepare them for the table.
Speaking scientifically, the fruit,
juice and leaves of this tree are
found to have solvent action when
brought into contact with animal
tissue and that not only where the
flesh is dead, but, in some respects,
even more remarkable, where it is liv-
ing. The fact has been taken advan-
tage of by medical men with good
effect in sundry diseases. This very
expression, vegetable pepsine, which
we employed above, indicates at once
the simplest of the uses of this
remedy. 1t has been administered
with excellent results in cases of in
digestion, from whence it's use has
been extended to more complex dis
orders. 1t has been successfully Eek
hibited," as doctors say, for enlarged
spleen and liver. Surgeon B. Evers,
in the Indian Medical Gazette, re-
ports that out of sixty cases thirty
nine were cured; in eighteen the re-
suit was not given; and in three
cases of Enormously enlarged spleens.
relief was afforded. "The juice was
administered as follows: A teaspoon
full was mixed with an equal quantity
of sugar, and the mass was divided
into three boluses, of which one was
taken morning, noon and evening,
For children, single drop of the
juice was given as dose mixed with
sugar" In Mauritius it is regarded
as one of the most successful reme-
dies for intestinal worms, single
dose being usually sufficient for
cure.
The active principle of the Paw
paw has been investigated not only
by DR.. T. Peckolt, who gave it the
name of Papayotin, but also by Drs.
Bouchut and Wurtz, who called it
Papaine, and it is the latter name
which appears to be the more gen.
orally accepted. But DR.. Bouchut
further made an important discov-
cry which opened up an entirely
new field of usefulness for the Paw
paw. He found that "both the di-
luted juice and Papaine had the
property of digesting living tissues,
normal or pathological, such as
adenomata and cancer, and convert
ing them into peptones in exactly
the same way as dead ones. This
knowledge was very soon turned to
account. Surgeons commenced to
treat abnormal growths with Pa
paine, and found it most eticacious
in removing the false membranes of
Group and diphtheria. AS rule So
lutions one in ten were employed
for painting the throat, and in some
cases Papaine was also given intern
ally" In obstinate cases of eczema
and other skin-diseases this sub
stance has also been tried with good
results. Compromising mixture of
twelve grains of Papaine and five
grains of powdered borax in two
drachms of distilled water, the af-
fected part was painted twice daily
and Sin less than month the hard
horny masses of heaped-up epider-
mis- had entirely disappeared from
the skin, and the texture was left
quite normal"