Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Health Benefits of Pawpaw Tree Fruit

Pawpaw Tree Fruit or Papaya or Papaw or Tree Melon is an exotic fruit that loaded with abundant health benefiting nutrients. Papaya is one of the wonderful gifts of God to humanity with delicious flavor and plentiful essential nutrients. The nutritional, therapeutic, medicinal and digestive properties of this fruit put it in a favorite category of the fruit lovers. The Pawpaw Tree is cultivated widely all over the tropical regions for its deliciously sweet pear-shaped fruits. Botanically, the plant is named as Carica papaya and belongs to the genus ‘Carica’ of family ‘Caricaceae’. Papaya is a creamy treat loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber and other essential nutrients.
Health Benefits of Pawpaw Tree Fruit

The Pawpaw Tree Fruit is native to Central America, Mexico, Africa, Asia and Thailand, as well as it is cultivating well in Australia. This fruit has been named as "the fruit of the angels" by Christopher Columbus. Pawpaw is a spherical or pear-shaped fruit, normally orange, yellow or greenish yellow color. It is large tree plant fruit generally getting 2.5kg and has bitter sweet, musky taste with rich flavor. The flesh of pawpaw fruit has soft consistency and orange color with either pink or yellow hues, as well as, it contains numerous black seeds.

Pawpaw fruit can be a good addition in your fruit basket as it beats other ordinary fruits in specific nutrients. It is higher in beneficial fats, protein, vitamin B Complex, calcium, phosphorous, copper, manganese, zinc, magnesium and iron, in comparison to oranges, bananas and apples. The fruit is also a richest source of seven of the essential amino acids. It is loaded with varying amounts of health-promoting antioxidants like vitamin A, vitamin C and phytochemicals carotenoids and bioflavonoids. It is also excellent source of folate, dietary fiber and vitamin E, and good source of riboflavin, thiamine and niacin.

One more goodwill nutrient is papain, a protein digesting enzyme. A single serving of fruit loads 19g carbohydrates and 80 calories. The fruit is 100% free of bad cholesterol, low in sodium and calories, and the largest part is made up of water, so it is very easier for our body to digest and absorb the nutrients from the fresh fruit.

Health Benefits of Pawpaw Tree Fruit

1) The fruit is shown beneficial in improving digestion, controlling diarrhea and preventing constipation.
  • It contains a protein digesting enzymes named papain and chymopapain, which are valuable in digestion improvement. Consumption of pawpaw after a meal is valuable for better digestion, preventing chronic indigestion and bloating. Moreover, the enzyme papain is an obesity fighter.
  • The soft, easily digestible flesh contains soluble dietary fiber in good amount, which aids to normalize the bowel movements and thereby reduces constipation.
  • It prevents sour eructation and nausea induced by both morning and motion sickness.
2) Pawpaw cleans and reinforces the stomach and intestines and it can be used to treat stomachache. Studies have shown that pawpaw fruit taken alone for 2 or 3 days has a highly valuable stimulant effect upon the stomach and intestines.

3) The unripe fruit is proven valuable in treating the stomach and intestinal ulcer. Chop a big-sized unripe pawpaw fruit into pieces without removing seeds and peel, and then infuse in 5 bottles of water for 4 days. After that, filter it and take half a glass three times every day for two weeks. This is an excellent remedy for any type of stomach and intestinal ulcer.

4) In addition to digestion improvement, the protein digesting enzymes ‘papain’ and ‘chymopapain’ are also proven beneficial to lower the inflammation in the body. The antioxidant nutrients present in Pawpaw fruit, such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E are also very good in lowering inflammation. Therefore, the fruit aids to relieve the pain and edema caused by trauma, burns and sport injuries. The fruit can also alleviate the severity of osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis, thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties.

5) Pawpaw fruit is useful in heart diseases, particularly in people with diabetes. The fruit is loaded with folic acid, which converts the homocysteine into benign amino acids. If the homocysteine remains unconverted, then it damages the blood vessels. Thereby, we can say that the pawpaw fruit prevents the damage to the blood vessels and accordingly prevents heart attacks and strokes.

6) As it is highly loaded with antioxidants, it thwarts cholesterol oxidation. If the oxidation of cholesterol occurs, the oxidized cholesterol sticks to the walls of the arteries and narrows down them internally, resulting in heart diseases. So, pawpaw can be used in preventive treatments against a range of heart diseases including heart attacks, strokes, atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease. Besides antioxidants, the fiber content present in fruit also reduces cholesterol.

7) Papaya is an immune booster fruit due to its high vitamins A, C and E content. It may be a healthy fruit choice to prevent illnesses such as colds and flu, recurrent ear infections, throat infections like tonsils, etc.

8) Being an excellent source of Vitamin A, pawpaw is very good for eyesight. It has a great defensive action against macular degeneration. Vitamin A is also needed to maintain healthy skin and mucus membranes.

9) Vitamin A, Vitamin C and flavonoids like beta carotenes, zeaxanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthins are all known to have antioxidant properties. They all act as defensive scavengers against reactive oxygen species and oxygen-derived free radicals which can lead to various disease processes and aging.

10) It is a natural fruit rich in carotenes. Eating fruits of such kind is proven to protect body from oral cavity and lung cancers.

11) Pawpaw fruit is loaded with many essential B-complex vitamins like thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine and Folic acid. These vitamins are vital in the sense that our body necessitates them to replenish, as well as, they play an imperative role in metabolism.

12) Being a good source of potassium, pawpaw is useful in controlling blood pressure and heart rate because potassium is a significant component of cell and body fluids.

13) The fruit is also beneficial for the skin; rubbing ripe papaya flesh on face relieves acne, imparts a glow, removes dark circles and makes the skin color lighter. It is good for hair and controls the dandruff.

14) Consumption of papaya benefits in Jaundice.

15) Pawpaw tree fruit benefits by removing worms. Chew 2 tbsp of the seeds of ripe pawpaw fruit at early morning on empty stomach and at bedtime for 3 days. Consume only fruits for breakfast and dinner for those 3 days. Moreover, rubbing ripe papaya flesh on affected area alleviates ringworm.

16) The unripe fruit is shown beneficial in treating the chronic external ulcers or sores. The white milky sap of the unripe fruit holds a high % of Papain that is useful in treating the chronic external ulcers and sores. Make a slight cut in the unripe pawpaw fruit and let the juice drop directly to the sore. Do this four times in a day, and keep on till the sore has dried. Consume a lot of ripe pawpaw to make the sore heal faster.

17) It reduces the risk of colon cancer. Each of the content folate, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E play a role in the decreasing the risk of colon cancer. The fibers present in papaya are capable of binding to the cancer-causing toxins of colon and stave them off from the healthy colon cells.

18) Papaya consumption benefits in irregular menses.

19) Eating pawpaw during pregnancy leads to abortion and therefore this fruit is used to induce abortion.

20) It is a very useful remedy to beat the impotence. Chop two unripe fruits into pieces without removing the seeds and peel, and then boil in 8 bottles of water. Take half glass three times every day.

Probable Side Effects of Papaya Consumption
  • Consumption of pawpaw at a larger extent may result in yellowing of the skin and palms, but this condition is reversible if pawpaw consumption is discontinued.
  • Eating pawpaw may lead to substantial gastritis in some people.
  • Consumption of pawpaw should be avoided by pregnant women because it induces miscarriage or abortion by triggering contractions of the uterus.
  • Excess consumption of pawpaw may exhibit potent laxative effects.
  • Eating raw papaya can lead to inflammations, sores, irritation in the whole digestive system and alimentary canal.

4 comments:

If pawpaw can heal irregular menses, why then is it used for contraceptive? How will Someone that has irregular menses that eats pawpaw then conceive?

Since the specie can abort pregnancy, I don't think is a good idea to eat it at all! All the same it is a natural fruit from God but should be taken with caution depending on the prevaling situation

if this fruit as you say has all these benefits and especially folic acid which is very essential for pregnant women how come it causes miscarriage and abortion?

Studies have found that this fruit has contraceptive effects. It was used as emergency contraceptive and abortifacient in ancient. Its compounds trigger powerful uterine contractions so it is dangerous to developing embryos.

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