Scientific Name: Carica papaya

Description: Erect, usually branchless tree with a soft grayish trunk, marked with scars. Leaves, borne on the top are long-stalked, rounded and deeply lobed. Flowers, male in clusters, female are sessile. Fruit, obovoid, yellow-orange when ripe with numerous pellet-sized black seeds.

Traditional uses:

• Debridement (removal of purulent exudate and blood clots from wound and ulcer): Apply latex (dagta) of unripe fruit or trunk on the wound or ulcer.
• Laxative: Eat ripe fruit liberally. (May cause harless yellowing of the skin, specially palms and soles but not the eyes.)
• Cystitis: Boil cup of chopped fresh leaves and 1 cup chopped green fruit in glasses of water for 15 mins; taken 1 cu 3 times daily.
• Acne: Mix 3 tablespoons of mashed ripe papaya with a tablespoon of kalamansi juice; apply the mixture to face for 30 minues, then wash face with warm water.
• Worm infestation: 1 cup of dried seeds, pulverized and mixed with 1 cup of milk or water; 1 teaspoon 2 hours after supper.
• Poultice of bruised papaya leaves for rheumatic complaints.
• Tea decoction of dried leaves for variety of stomach troubles.
• Decoction of boiled flowers or powdered seeds promote menstruation.
• Infusion of male flowers (left insert) with honey used for cough, hoarseness, bronchitis, laryngitis and tracheitis: a spoonful every hour.
• Poultice of roots used for centipede bites.

Excerpts from: "An illustrated compilation of Philippine medicinal plants by Godofredo Stuart"