Papayas
Description
Papaya, Fruit bomb or Olocoton. Soft fruit, very juicy and of buttery consistency. It belongs to the family of the Caricaceae, formed by 71 species of trees without branches that produce great fruits, has many medicinal properties that together with its delicious flavor make it very popular and appreciated.
Features
- Tree: The tree that produces it is a fragile and spongy trunk that reaches up to seven meters in height.
- Flowers: Papaya bushes have three different kinds of feet; some with female flowers, others with hermaphrodite flowers and others with male flowers.
- The feminine flowers: it has a chalice formed by a crown or five-pointed star very pronounced and easy to distinguish. Next to this is the ovary, covered by the sepals; these are five, yellowish-white, and when very tender, lightly touched with violet at the tip; they are not soldiers. The stigmata are five, yellow in color, and shaped like a fan. The fruits of this foot are large and globose.
- Hermaphrodite flowers: it has 10 stamens petals welded in more than a third of its length, elongated cylindrical ovary, produces elongated uniform fruits, have both sexes and the tree that owns them has in turn three different kinds of flowers.
- The male flowers: they grow in long peduncles of more than half a meter in length and at the ends of which are bunches consisting of 15 - 20 florets.
- Stem: Erect, hollow, grayish, cylindrical, smooth with diameter e / 20 and 30 cm and up to 10 m in height. Hardened by the presence of scars from the leaves.
- Leaves: Palmate with hollow petioles, long up to 130 cm in length. The limb can measure e / 25 and 75 cm. The coloration can vary from green to purple. An adult plant has e / 30 and 50 functional leaves, which fall while the tree grows.
- Root: The main root (pivoting) is napiform and can reach more than 1 m deep. The secondary roots develop in a radius e / 80 and 100 cm. The highest concentration of absorbing roots are found in the first 30 cm.
- Fruits: a berry from a superior ovary, it can be round, sharp, elongated. Formed by 3 parts, Exocarp (husk), Mesocarp (pulp), Endocarp (seeds and mucilage).
Nutritional value
- Calories 26.5
- Carbohydrates (g) 6.3
- Fiber (g) 1,9
- Potassium (mg) 211
- Magnesium (mg) 8
- Provitamin A (mcg) 97.5
- Vitamin C (mg) 82
- Folic acid (mcg) one
Applications
- Papaya is a tropical fruit that is consumed mainly by its pulp, which is usually orange and has a sweet, juicy flavor.
- Ripe fruits are usually taken as fresh fruit, sliced, with sugar and lime juice or in fruit salads.
- Green papayas are consumed as cooked fruit.
- Various products are also made, such as jams, soft drinks, ice creams and jellies, as well as being preserved with it.
- Papain is used as a clarifier for beer, in softening solutions for meat and as a drug for digestive remedies.
- Papain comes from the drying of the latex that is obtained from the clamping of the various green parts of the papaya, mainly of the fruit, and is mainly used in pharmacy, in the food industries to soften the meat, in the textile to macerate the fibers of wool and cotton, and in the tannery industry for leather tanning.
Varieties of papayas
In Cuba
- Maradol Roja: Variety of Cuban origin, obtained in the Institute of Tropical Viandas Research (INIVIT), of early maturation (beginning of the harvest cycle between six and seven months). Of consistent fruits, with an average weight of 1.6 to 2.2 kg, of oblong shape and red pulp, excellent flavor and a Brix of 11%, high productive potential and long shelf life.
- Maradol Amarilla: Variety of Cuban origin obtained in the INIVIT, of early maturation (beginning of the harvest cycle between six and seven months). Of consistent fruits and of excellent flavor and a Brix of 11%, with average weight between 1,5 and 2,5 kg, of oblong shape and yellow pulp. It has a high productive potential.
- INIVIT fb - 2000 Dwarf: Variety obtained in the INIVIT. Plants of low size (0.95 - 1.05 m). It produces fruits of oblong shape, with an average of 37 fruits / plant, of red mesocarp with a Brix between 10 and 12%. The average weight of the fruits varies between 0.5 and 2.0 kg. Adaptable to grow houses with long shelf life.