ABSTRACT
The papaya plant is a small tree, Carica papaya L. (family Caricaceae), native to tropical America but found in tropical areas throughout the world. Its trunk, which is nonwoody and hollow, produces large, deeply lobed leaves and smooth-skinned cantaloupe-like fruits or melons directly on its surface without intervening branches. When ripe, the fruits are a very desirable food. Shallow cuts made on the surface of fully grown but unripe fruits cause them to exude a milky sap or latex that after collection and drying is known as crude papain. In addition to the large quantities produced by incising the fruit, about 2 percent of papain is found in papaya leaves.1
