Editorial by Olasee Davis
Every year,I participate in the annual health fair of the University of the Virgin Islands as the “Bush Doctor”on the St. Croix campus. This year,I had about 25 specimens of local bush or medicinal plants on display.
Health will always remain an issue in our lives because people are looking for ways to improve their health. Papaya was one of the specimens that fairgoers asked questions about –not so much about the nutritional value of the fruit,although papaya is a great source of iron,calcium,phosphorous and a good source of vitamin A,B,C ,riboflavin and niacin. People were surprised that the plant has medicinal values such as the dry leaves used for high blood pressure.
Papaya (Carica papaya) is a member of the small family of Caricaceae. The origin of papaya is on the American mainland somewhere north of South America,perhaps in southern Mexico or Central America.
(Originally published at The Virgin Islands Daily News)
At the time of the Conquest,papaya was cultivated by Native Americans from the Isthmus of Panama to Chiapas,Mexico. It was known by the natives as olocoton. The plant was first described by the Spanish chronicler Oviedo in 1526 on the Caribbean coasts of Panama and Colombia.
In 1624,it was the “Island Caribs”of St. Christopher who taught the French and English settlers how to grow crops best suited to the Lesser Antilles.
Some of these crops were cassava,tobacco,sweet potato,and to a lesser extent pineapple,corn,papaya,pumpkin,and hot peppers. When the French Creoles and English came to the Virgin Islands,they brought with them this knowledge.
Although the Spanish spread the seeds of papaya throughout the tropical world,the Native Americans were responsible for planting the seeds in the West Indies long before the first European entered the so-called New World.
Today the plant is called by different names depending on culture and language. In some parts of the world like Australia and the West Indies,the fruit is known as papaw or pawpaw. The name is widely recognized by kapaya,kepaya,lapaya or tapaya in southern Asia and East Indies. Spanish-speaking people call it melon zapote,lechosa,payaya (for the fruit) or papayo or papayero (for the plant) or fruta bomba,depending on the country.
In Brazil,papaya was known as mamao. During the first encountered by the Europeans in the Americas,papaya was nicknamed “tree melon.”The French names for papaya were papaya (for the fruit) and papayer (for the plant) or sometimes figuier des Iles.
Papayas are herbaceous dicotyledonous plants which may produce fruits for more than 20 years in the natural environment. When cultivated,the plant usually has a single trunk. However,as the plant develops into a tree,it might develop several branches as it become older.
The trunk is soft,pulpy wood,and the leaves are deeply lobed with hollow soft petioles. The melon-like fruit varies in size,shape,flavor,and color and hang close to the trunk. The plant can exhibit three sex types –female,male,or hermaphrodite –characterized by their flowers.
Although,it is possible for papaya to have more than one type of flower,it usually expresses only a single sex. However,there are tendencies for the plant to sometime change sex type due to unfavorable climate conditions such as drought or high temperatures.
If the plant produces male flowers only,it won’t produce fruit. In 1919,a cultivar was developed in Barbados known as “solo papaya.”By 1939,the fruit became commercial. This papaya was grown on St. Croix on a commercial level for several years. In the 1950s,fruit and the tree was attacked by a disease known as “papaya decline.”Ever since,the UVI Agricultural Experiment Station has been conducting research to establish varieties to resist the diseases of the papaya.
Today,there are papaya varieties developed by the Agricultural Experiment Station that will produce a good crop without major disease impact.
Now,let us get back to the medicinal question of the papaya. Before the advent of the pressure cooker,papain –a chemical found in the green fruit of papaya –was manufactured commercially to tenderize meat. Here in the Caribbean,the leaves of papaya were used by crushing and wrapping the leaves around tough meat,which tenderized the meat overnight.
You have to be careful you don’t get the sap into your eye. If you do,it will cook your eye like meat and you could become blind because of the papain chemical in the sap. Nevertheless,papain has many practical applications. It is applied on tuna liver before extraction of the oil,rich in vitamins A and D. It is also used in toothpastes,detergents,cosmetics,as well as pharmaceutical preparations to aid digestion.
It has been employed to treat ulcers,dissolve membranes in diphtheria and also reduce swelling,fever and adhesions after surgery. Papaya is known for inducing abortion,but I won’t mention how. In some cultures,the dry leaves are smoked to relieve asthma.
The application of papaya seems to be endless for medicinal use in a world of sick people.
- Contact St. Croix ecologist Olasee Davis at odaviss@yahoo.com.
