361. Carica papaya.—Melon-tree. True papaw.
361. CARICA PAPAYA.—MELON-TREE. TRUE PAPAW (wholly different from the common papaw, Asim'ina trilo'ba, of our Southern States). Habitat: Tropics; cultivated. Although the inspissated juice (papain) of the unripe fruit has been for a long time known as a medicinal agent, having a reputation in its native country as a remedy for haemoptysis, bleeding piles, and ulcers of urinary passages, and for ringworm, etc., it has only comparatively recently attracted attention as a digestive agent. Dymock, in his treatise on the drugs of British India, says: "Its digestive action on meat was probably known in the West Indies at a very early date. * * * It has long been the practice to render meat tender by rubbing it with the juice of the unripe fruit or by rubbing it with the leaves. Its therapeutic value, in the form of papain, is specially commended in aggravated symptoms of dyspepsia." Its constituents are mainly globulin, albumin, and albumoses. Dose: 1 to 3 gr. (0.065 to 0.2 Gm.).
