Payaya extraction techniques

Techniques to prolong shelf life of Papaya

Introduction: The scientific name of papaya is Carica papaya. It belongs to the family Caricaceae under the order Brassicas. Papayas grow in tropical climates. The other well-known name for papaya is papaws or pawpaws. The papayas are sweet and vibrant in color, green outer layer. These are very soft, fleshy fruit, small. The leaves are large, 50-70 cm in diameter, and deeply palmately lobed with seven lobes. Papayas are dioecious and dimorphic. The fruit is a berry.

Uses of papaya: 

• Antidiabetic properties.

• Papaya fruit extractions are very useful for liver-protective effects.

• Antimalarial activities.

• Antidiarrhoea activities.

• It is used as a syrup, juice, or leaf capsule.

Nutrients: 

There are many nutrients present in papaya. These are like- fat, cholesterol, carbohydrate, sugar, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, iron, potassium, calcium, dietary fiber, magnesium, etc.
Production: India leads the world in papaya production with an annual output of about 3 million tonnes. Apart from India, Assam data was reported at 193.869 Tons in 2017. At present records, Assam reports 152.73 papaya production in an area of 7.53 sq in 2021-2022.

          During 2015-16, the total production of papaya in Assam was- 1, 45,476 Tons. In various districts like Kamrup(R), the production of papaya in 2015-16 was 7443 Ton, In Nalbari district, the production was 6230 Ton, In Kamrup(M) the production was 937 Ton. In 2020, in a village in Nagaon district, Assam, named Kothiatali, there was a person who planted papaya trees, and the production was listed as 160 Tons. On December 23, 2018, in the town of Kamrup district named Dudhnoi, 2-3 farmers cultivated organic papaya. On a 15-bigha plot of land, the joint venture, about 15 quintals of organic produce has already been exported to Dubai.

Varieties of papaya: In India, a large number of papaya varieties are cultivated. There are two basic types are-‘dioecious’ which separate female and male plants and ‘gynodioecious’ which produce female and hermaphrodite(that means a flower that has both male and female sexual organs) plants. Some varieties cultivated in India are- Pusa Delicious, Pusa Majesty, Pusa Dwarf, Co1, Co2, Co3, pink flesh sweet, etc.

             In Assam, ‘Pusa Nanaha’ and ‘Pusa Dwarf’ may perform better than local genotypes. In two North-Eastern states like Mizoram, ‘Zinta’ and ‘Surya’ are area-specific varieties and In Tripura, ‘Pusa Delicious’ and ‘Ambasa Local’ are area-specific cultivars Nagaon, one of the towns of Assam, two full sun exposure papaya varieties Named- ‘Red Lady’ papaya and ‘Pusa Dwarf’ are cultivated. In the Kamrup district, the ‘Red Lady’ variety is also cultivated.

History: The origins of papaya are lost to time. The oxford companion to food was said that very little of their pre-Columbian history. Spanish invaders, native to Central America took to top the Salmon-orange colored fruit and planted it across the Caribbean and South America. By the 17th century, Portuguese and Dutch colonized had followed suit and brought papaya to Africa and then onto the far East, where it became an integral fruit of South East Asia and North East India.

Techniques to be used for the shelf life of papaya:

The edible coating is one of the well-known aspects of the preservation of papaya. Among the various edible coating Aloe vera gel has drawn serious attention from the scientific point of view. It is one of the promising bio-preservatives due to its human health benefit and antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Aloe vera gel is used to coat the papaya for 15 days at ambient room temperature (32 2ºC) with 68% relative humidity. Aloe vera can be used as a substitute to control disease pathogens on papaya. Its coating is a convenient and safe measure to use as a biodegradable.

Some experiments proved to increase the shelf life of papaya through vacuum packing. Papayas were pretreated with waxing, the oil used, purified packets, and tissue paper wrapping given along with control and was packed in almost 150 gauge thickness polyethylene film bags under vacuum. The fruits have then stored in a room and refrigerated temperature. After one and four weeks we can observe that the shelf life of papaya increased under vacuum packing with mentioned temperature.

Ethylene gas is used for treating the unripe green papayas such that they develop yellow or red color or orange color.

Making papaya an export-quality product:

• Papaya used as cosmetics: The papain enzyme present in papaya has skin-care (cleansing) properties. The products of papaya are used to reduce acne by removing dead skin cells.

• Medicine from papaya: The leaf extract has been used in traditional medicine to treat fever in some infectious diseases like malaria, dengue, chikungunya, etc.

• Jelly from papaya: A substance present in papaya named ‘pectin’ together with water that comes out from the cut forms the “jelly” substance.

     

 Consumption scenario:

        Carica papaya is a major tropical crop consumed worldwide either as a vegetable fruit or processed fruit.

            In a country in South East Asia named Malaysia, papaya was initially planted in a small proportion throughout the country. After 15 years of breeding and selection, a new variety, Carica papaya L.var. Exotica was produced by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) in 1987. Malaysian adults in weekly fruit papaya are 51.9%

            In the case of India, despite being the world's leading papaya producers, exports of fruits in 2009 were less than 1 percent of the total production. Papaya data was reported at 0.053 kg in 2018 in Indonesia. The records a decrease from the previous year 2017. In Indonesia, averaging 0.046 kg from December 2003 to 2018. With 15-16 observations Indonesia constituted the country with the largest volume of papaya production.

            In 2021, the average yield of papayas in South-East Asia declined modestly. Thailand is in the third position in papaya production.

Extraction techniques of papaya:

• Ultrasound extraction

• High hydrostatic pressure extraction (HHPE)

• Agitation extraction 

• High hydrostatic pressure-Agitation extraction

 Health benefits of PAPAYA:

• It improves digestion

• Prevents cancer

• Protects kidneys

• Regulates blood pressure

• Boosts immunity

• Nourishes skin

Maintains eye health.