Papaya as Medicaments 185
against jaundice (Table 16. 5). Papaya leaves have also been used as treatment for
genito-urinary ailments (Saran and Choudhary 2013). The unripe fruit is also used
traditionally for treating jaundice by the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria (Elujoba 2001) and
farmers in India (Devi and Saran 2014).
The labourers, especially tribals, are more susceptible to hydrocele as compared
to farmers due to lack of education and hygienic conditions (Table 16.6). They
have traditional knowledge that eating papaya fruits increase the pain in hydrocele
patients. Peel and pulp of ripe papaya fruits contain low amounts of anti-nutritional
factors such as tannin, phytate and oxalate creating incompatibility problems.
The ripe fruits are also a poor source of benzyl glucosinolate (BG) and benzyl iso-
thiocyanate (BITC) toxicants (Li et al. 2012).
16.4 Is Eating Papaya during Pregnancy Safe?
In India, there are many old wives’ tales and information flooding the media whether
ladies should or should not eat certain foods during pregnancy. Fruit is widely
classified as harmful in pregnancy; hence pregnant women are strictly forbidden
from eating it for fear of its teratogenic and abortifacient effects (Adebiyi et al.
2003). There have been many research projects into the effects of foods on pregnant
women and papaya is no exception. The problem with papaya is that in an unripe
state it contains high concentrations of latex, which gets reduced upon ripening
and once the fruit is completely ripe, it has almost no latex left. The papaya latex’s
main constituents are papain and chymopapain, which have teratogenic (abnormali-
ties of physiological development) and abortifacient effects. Chinoy et al. (2006)
proved the anti-fertility, anti-implantation and abortifacient properties of extracts
from papaya seeds, which act by increasing the chances of uterine contractions as
the papain acts like prostaglandin and oxytocine, which are known to put a moth-
er’s body into labour and hence an adverse effect on babies’ and mothers’ health.
TABLE 16.3
Response of Papaya Unripe Fruit Extract and Leaf Extract as Supportive
Therapy (ST) on Platelet Count in Dengue Patients
Treatment
Platelet Count
Initial 1st day 2nd day 3rd day 4th day
Medical treatment 61 × 103 /μL 70 × 103 /μlb 97 × 103 /μLa 122 × 103 /μLb 170 × 103 /μLc
Fruit extract (ST) 62 × 103 /μL 74 × 103 /μLa 110 × 103 /μLa 130 × 103 /μLb 186 × 103 /μLb
Leaf extract (ST) 58 × 103 /μL 77 × 103 /μLa 100 × 103 /μLa 154 × 103 /μLa 202 × 103 /μLa
Source: Adapted from Saran, P. L. et al., 2015, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, 14(1): (in
press).
Note: Means with the same letter (superscript) in the columns show platelet counts not significantly dif-
ferent (P = 0.05) based on the Duncan Multiple Range Test.