Benefits of Fermented Papaya in Human Health

Fermented foods have been used for several years all over the world, due to their unique nutritional characteristics and because fermentation promotes conservation and food security. Moreover, fermented foods and beverages have a strong impact on human gut microbiota. Papaya is the fruit of the Carica papaya plant, traditionally used as a medicinal fruit, but there are also references to the use of the fermented form of this fruit. The main purpose of this review is to provide an improved understanding of fermented papaya nutritional and health applications. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Both in vitro and in vivo studies were included. According to the retrieved studies, fermented papaya has proven to be an excellent antioxidant and an excellent nutraceutical adjuvant in combined therapies against several diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, allergic reactions, anticancer activity, and anemias. Therefore, it is concluded that fermented papaya has many benefits for human health and can be used as prevention or aid in the treatment of various diseases.

Carica papaya Linn. fruit extract inhibited the activities of aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase: possible mechanism for amelioration of diabetic complications

Background

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder which is associated with debilitating complications including eye disease, kidney disorder, and diabetic foot disease. One of the mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications is the polyol pathway. This study evaluated the inhibitory effect of aqueous extract of four tropical fruits, namely apple (Malus domestica Borkh.), banana (Musa paradisiaca Linn.), pawpaw (Carica papaya Linn.), and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai), on the activities of polyol pathway enzymes (aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase).

Results

All the fruits, with the exception of banana, displayed stronger inhibition of sorbitol dehydrogenase than aldose reductase which culminated in low IC50 for the inhibition of sorbitol dehydrogenase. Of the fruit extracts tested, pawpaw inhibited both aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase most effectively with IC50 of 150.78 μg/mL and 46.30 μg/mL, respectively. Lineweaver-Burk plot also revealed that the pawpaw extract inhibited aldose reductase competitively while sorbitol dehydrogenase was inhibited in a mixed non-competitive manner.

Conclusion

Aqueous extract of pawpaw fruit effectively inhibited polyol pathway enzymes, and this may be attributed to rich nutritional and phytochemical composition of the fruit. Consequently, the consumption of pawpaw fruit may contribute to the amelioration of diabetic complications.

Safety and Microbiological Quality

Food fermentation aims, primarily, to increase the shelf life of perishable foodstuffs [...]