150 Papaya
for chemo-mechanical dental caries removal since it does not interfere in the bond
strength of restorative materials to dentin (Lopes et al. 2007). Papain enzyme has a
long history of being used to treat sports injuries, other causes of trauma and aller-
gies (Dietrich 1965).
13.10 Potential and Market Opportunities
Papaya, a tropical herbaceous succulent plant which possesses self-supporting stems,
grows in all tropical countries and many subtropical regions of the world (Jaime
et al. 2007). Moreover, there is no limitation due to seasonality as papaya is available
almost round the year. Consequently, there is a need to facilitate the entrepreneurs
in understanding the potential of papaya production and the importance of setting
up a unit of papain. Yield of papain depends on cultivar, time of taping, nutritional
status of plants and region. There are positive correlations between fruit size and
papain yield and rainfall and papain yield. Each fruit produces 5–8 g papain depend-
ing upon cultivar. A well-managed papaya production has recorded higher papain
yield of 8.17 g per fruit and the highest papain of 686.29 g per plant in a period of
6 months (Kumar et al. 2007; Reddy et al. 2012). The variety, CO-2 yielded 100–
120 kg papain/acre with an average potential of 200–300 g per tree and a maximum
up to 450 g per plant. The yield per hectare is worked out to be 250–375 kg with high
yielding papaya varieties. To increase the papain production, high yielding cultivars
like, Pusa Majesty, CO-2, CO-5 and CO-6 have been cultivated. Yield of papain
increases with the increase in fruit age which is at the maximum between 60 and
70 days. The spacing of 1.6 × 1.6 m and application of 300 g N are found optimum
for papain yield in CO-6 at Coimbatore. Application of plant growth regulators like,
2–4D and 2, 4, 5 T @ 10 ppm during blooming period increases the yield of papain.
Urea mixed with the plant growth regulators is economical (Ram 2005).
Papain is used in many industries such as, breweries, pharmaceuticals, food,
leather, detergents and meat, and fish processing for a variety of processes. Therefore,
the end use segments are many in signifying that papain has high export demand.
Since there are good prospects for papain market, the papaya production and extrac-
tion of papain can be a high source of income even for small farmers. Lanced fruits
are sold in market after ripening because latex extraction does not impair its taste or
other qualities in any way. Remaining fully grown but green and scarred fruit can be
used for processing after extraction of latex for candy or confectionary (petha) mak-
ing. Petha production is a lucrative industry and will be a great success for generating
extra income from these fruits.