The Medicinal Properties of the Papaya, Carica papaya L. :: Botany

The Medicinal Properties of the Papaya, Carica papaya L. Quite surprisingly, historians know little about Hippocrates, the physician often referred to as "the father of medicine". However, we do know that he was a strong advocate of the use of medicinal plants to prevent and cure diseases. He recorded between three hundred and four hundred plant remedies in his writing and during the middle ages herbal remedies were passed down from generation to generation. Although the church emphasized faith healing over other forms of healing, Christian monks would preserve many of the early Greek and Roman medical texts, later growing their own herbs in the monasteries. By the time the colonizers settled in the new world, they brought with them some knowledge of herbal medicine. This in turn was shared with the Native Americans and other indigenous peoples of the new world who practiced ethnobotanical rituals as a daily and integral part of their lives. Most recently beginning in the 1800's, while chemical drugs became popular with the medical establishment and those who could afford it, herbal medicine continued to be practiced by those who could not afford the later or who were strong believers in natural medicine. While chemotherapy has brought us many life-saving drugs, today nearly fifty percent of commonly used drugs are either plant derivatives or contain the equivalent of a chemical imitation of a plant compound. Indeed Digitalis, Aspirin, Reserpine, Quinine, Tetracycline and the ever useful Penicillin are all members of this list. In fact according to the World Health Organization, herbal medicine today is still the primary source of health care for approximately eighty percent of the worlds population. Papaya/Pawpaw Carica papaya L., more commonly known as the papaya, belongs to the Caricaceae. Its classification is as follows: Division: Magnoliophyta, Class: Magnoliopside, Subclass: Dilleniidae, Order: Violales and as previously mentioned Family: Caricaceae. It was first described by the Spanish chronicler Oviedo in 1526, from the Caribbean coast of Panama and Colombia. Soon after it was grown throughout the tropics, its distribution being aided by the abundance of its seeds. The Papaya seed is viable for up to three years under cool, dry conditions and it is a herbaceous , dicotyledonous plant that may produce fruits for more than twenty years. The plant usually has a single trunk with several well developed branches. The melon-like fruit varies in size and shape, and hangs from short, thick peduncles at the leaf axil. The Medicinal Properties of the Papaya, Carica papaya L. :: Botany The Medicinal Properties of the Papaya, Carica papaya L. Quite surprisingly, historians know little about Hippocrates, the physician often referred to as "the father of medicine". However, we do know that he was a strong advocate of the use of medicinal plants to prevent and cure diseases. He recorded between three hundred and four hundred plant remedies in his writing and during the middle ages herbal remedies were passed down from generation to generation. Although the church emphasized faith healing over other forms of healing, Christian monks would preserve many of the early Greek and Roman medical texts, later growing their own herbs in the monasteries. By the time the colonizers settled in the new world, they brought with them some knowledge of herbal medicine. This in turn was shared with the Native Americans and other indigenous peoples of the new world who practiced ethnobotanical rituals as a daily and integral part of their lives. Most recently beginning in the 1800's, while chemical drugs became popular with the medical establishment and those who could afford it, herbal medicine continued to be practiced by those who could not afford the later or who were strong believers in natural medicine. While chemotherapy has brought us many life-saving drugs, today nearly fifty percent of commonly used drugs are either plant derivatives or contain the equivalent of a chemical imitation of a plant compound. Indeed Digitalis, Aspirin, Reserpine, Quinine, Tetracycline and the ever useful Penicillin are all members of this list. In fact according to the World Health Organization, herbal medicine today is still the primary source of health care for approximately eighty percent of the worlds population. Papaya/Pawpaw Carica papaya L., more commonly known as the papaya, belongs to the Caricaceae. Its classification is as follows: Division: Magnoliophyta, Class: Magnoliopside, Subclass: Dilleniidae, Order: Violales and as previously mentioned Family: Caricaceae. It was first described by the Spanish chronicler Oviedo in 1526, from the Caribbean coast of Panama and Colombia. Soon after it was grown throughout the tropics, its distribution being aided by the abundance of its seeds. The Papaya seed is viable for up to three years under cool, dry conditions and it is a herbaceous , dicotyledonous plant that may produce fruits for more than twenty years. The plant usually has a single trunk with several well developed branches. The melon-like fruit varies in size and shape, and hangs from short, thick peduncles at the leaf axil.