Papain

Papain is a nitrogenous body, isolated from the juice of the tropical Papaw (q.v.). The juice from which it is extracted is a milky, white, odorous fluid, obtained by making incisions in the ripe fruit. From this papain is isolated by precipitation with alcohol after the fatty matters present have been removed. The juice has been for a long time used in the West Indies for making meat tender; but it has only recently been shown that papain possesses, like pepsin and trypsin, the power of digesting meat-fibre; and this digestion will go on in an alkaline, a neutral, or an acid solution. Hence it belongs to the group of digestive ferments, and like them is employed in some cases of dyspepsia, being either administered internally or employed for the pre-digestion of food. It has also been used for the removal of warts and for the solution of the 'false membrane' in cases of diphtheria.