Papaya: The Most Useful Fruit

Papaya is one of the most useful and nutritious fruits of the tropics. Unknown, perhaps, to most people, papaya is an excellent source of the most needed vitamin C or ascorbic acid. Approximately a cup or a slice about 8x13cm is more than enough to supply the normal daily body needs. Besides, it is also a fair source of provitamin A and iron and contributes a little of the B complex vitamins in the green stage.

When used as vegetable, papaya can supply about 15 per cent of the body’s need for calcium (twice as much as that supplied by the ripe ones) and about 33 per cent for vitamin C. The vitamin C content of the raw or green form, however can easily be lost in the process of cooking, especially when overcooked.

Papaya has three general uses: as fruit, as vegetable, and as source of medicine. The unripe native papaya is commonly used as an ingredient in well-known vegetable dishes. As fruit, payaya is served plain or together with other fruits like banana, pineapple, avocado, apple etc, in fruits drinks and salads. Some of the overripe or smashed ones are made into delicious fruit jams and used as bread spread. Unripe or semiripe fruits are made into very attractive and artistic preserves. As medicine, the ripe papaya is often used as laxative. It is also a valuable source of papain, an enzyme used in the treatment of swelling and which is similar to pepsin which helps in indigestion of food. It is, therefore used to relief dyspepsia.

Sanjeev Pandey
Kathmandu

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