The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1913-05-29
Production and Uses Of Strange
Vegetable Digestive Called Papain

Consul Charles K. Moser. Colombo
ECeylon: The fruit of the papaya tree
has always been a favored berakfast
6dish with travellers in the orient, the
Pacific isles, and tropical regions gem
orally, as much for its digestive quail
ties as for its lusciousness Its most
important chemical constituent, pa
has always been a favored breakfast
pain, has long been known to materia
medica as a vegetable digestive super
ior to pepsin.
Among the orientals, particularly in
South India and Ceylon, the digestive
qualities of the papaya are so well
known that the fruit Is almost univer-
sally used, and undoubtedly with great
! effect in preventing dyspepsia.
s& The Carica spapaya grows largely in
Ceylon. India, the East and West In
dies, and the Hawaiian islands, and
seems to prefer a slightly sandy soil
that is not too rich. The tree attains
a height of twenty to thirty feet, and
it's broad palmate leaves with the fruit
clustering beneath form in a tuft at
the top of the tree. The fruits re-
semble small muskmelons in size,
shape and appearance (being in fact
called in Florida the tropical melon
paWpaW.p3 They are green when un-
ripe, greenish yellow when ripe. with
rich yellow flesh, and contain in their
hollow interior hundreds of small,
{ round black seeds with a flavor some
what like nasturtium seeds. The fla
vor of the fruit in the best papayas Is
much like that of a sweet but rather
insipid melon favored with violet per-
fume. From the fresh milky juice that
Il exudes from both the fruit and the
Z tree itself papain is obtained
There are several varieties of Carica
papaya. and the papain derived from
the different kinds varies accordingly,
the best being obtained from the male
trees of the Cey1on hybrid papaWa.
The papain obtained from the West
Indian variety is said to be inferior.
Many Uses for Papain.
The digestive and disintegrating
properties of papain are remarkable.
The milk and even the fresh leaves of
the papaya tree will render the tough
est beef tender in the space of two
hours Native cooks invariably wrap
beef with the fresh leaves for half an
hour, or apply a small quantity of the
fresh milk directly to it's surface, or
put a piece of green fruit into the raw
curry when the Beef willsn Boil soft.
If a large quantity of the Juice is ap-
piled to the raw beef 1t reduces 1T in
little over half an hour to a pulpy mass
that appears as If Hit had undergone
partial digestion. Papain is said to
be capable of digesting ten to tvelve
times it weight Of egg albumen at the
temperature of the human body.
There are many other uses for pa
pain. Taken as a tabloid or lin the
form of raw fruit, 1t acts gently but
effectively upon the liver and bowels.
1T is also used to remove freckles and
4 lis frequently used by the natives Of
Ceylon as a soap. From its power to
remove stains In clothes, papain Is
called melon bleach, by the Singha-
lese, and they use it. in the water
when washing colored clothes, espec-
tally black, which it seems to ir1tensi-
fy. In the Antilles it is used as a
1 cosmetic and produces clear, satiny
complexions- M
Commercial papain, or the crude
drug, is a a7browrlish, gummy substance.
hooking like coarse bran or irregular
granuies OF gum arabic. In Ceylon III
Sn prepared by treating the juice of the
fruit with rectifying spirits and either
drying in the sun or eyaporating In
dry-air chambers, The age sex and
variety OF the tree are important In
determining the quality of the dried
preparation. Papain il insoluble In
4 water, fcoagu ates when heated to- IT'S