The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-01
THE STORY Of
THE PAPAW"

Under the above title there appeared
in the American Journal Of Pharmacy
for June, 1901, an address delivered
by Fred B. Kilmer. in which he des-
cribed at length the digesting melon or
ipapaw tree, and its wonderful fruit.
From this address we learn that the
papaw tree grows in all tropical eoun-
tries. and that its trunks, branches and
fruit contain a milky juice, which has
the property of softening and making
tender the toughest meat. Hence its
name "the digesting melon"
The fruits finds large consumption
by the natives, and are considered very
nutritious. At the corner of a sugar
cane field, where the ragged canes bend
over in a wild green, brown and yellow
tangle there will be standing papaw
tree, and if the time of the papaw has
quite come, beneath the tree will be
assembled half-dozen negroes.
The natives enjoy its flavor, while the
stranger has to acquire the liking.
Excellent preserves are made of the
ripe fruit, which, for this purpose is
boiled down in sugar and eandied (hke
citrOn). 1t is also eaten as we eat
melons The sweetness of its resinous
pulpy juice clings to the tongue, and
remains prevalent for some hours. In
every tropical village one will find
market place, set apart, where the
native products are bought and sold.
Inc papaw is always there in abund
ance.
The strange and beautiful. races of
the Antilles astonish the eyes of the
traveller who sees them for the first
time. 1t has been said that they have
their black, brown and olive and yellow
skin tints from the satiny and bright
hued rinds of the fruits which surround
them. If they are to be believed, the
mystery of their clear, clean complex
ion and exquisite, pulp-like flesh arises
from the use of the papaw fruit as a
cosmetic. A slice of the ripe fruit is
rubbed over the skin and is said to dis
solve spare flesh and remove every
| blemish. 1t is toilet requisite of the
young and old, producing, according to
| the words of a French writer, ''the
most beautiful specimens of the human
race
The papaw has been brought to
| America as a cure for the national
disease-dyspepsia In its tropical
home there are no dyspeptics, but its use
along similar lines is by no means I'M
known. The meat in these countries is
tough and tasteless; beef, mutton, pork
or fowl have the same flavor, and are
as tough as hickory wood. The papaw
helps to overcome this. Rubbed over
tough meat it will render it soft and
change a piece of apparent leather to
a tender, juicy steak. 1t is put into
the pot with meat, enters into the
cereals, soups, stews and other dishes,
and they are made at least more edible
and digestible.
| Most of the half-breeds of Indian
extraction upon the South American
continent and adjacent islands are
particularly given to meat diet; many
I of them eat it raw; sometimes in a
state of partial decay, and here the
papaw is brought into use, being eaten
with the flesh or rubbed over it before
| it is eaten. Some of these people are
great gluttons; they gorge themselves
until the skin on their distended' stom-
ach is stretched to its utmost. 1t is
certain that no human being could
digest the kind of food and the enor-
nous amounts they consume without
the kindly aid of the papaw fruit to
assist digestion.
The peculiar digestive action of this
fruit is so well known in tropical coun
tries, that there is scarcely door yard
in the settled portions of these coun-
tries that does not contain one or more
of these trees, the fruit being used as a
stomach regulator or cure for dyspepsia. /
Travellers have long observed that the
most pronounced attacks of indigestion
give way to slice of one of these
melons. Confirmed dyspeptics visiting
the West India Islands often report
themselves cured, by eating the digest /
ing melon.
The secret of the action of the digest /
ing melon is that it contains a peculiar
quality of pepsin akin in nature to the .
fluid or ferment given out by the stom-
ach in the act of digestion, and there
can be no stomach digestion without /
this feTment. When the stomach fails
to supply it sufficiently-as in dyspep- /
STA or in cases of over eating-a sub
stitute must be furnished Commonly /
this substitute is pig pepsin, scraped .
from the stomach of the dead animal |
1t frequently contains a quantity of
poisonous substances, removed with it,
and afterwards practically inseparable
from it, which of course go into the
stomach every time any preparation
that includes animal pepsin is taken.
This danger is especially great now that
there are so many brands of cheap pep
sin on the market, made at the great |
swine slaughtering establishments of
the West.