Papaya leaf health benefits

By now, some of you would have read about the dramatic cancer-fighting properties of papaya leaf extract. Here’s our digest for the others.

Various parts of Carica papaya Linn. (CP) have been traditionally used as ethnomedicine for a number of disorders, including malaria. There have been anecdotes of patients with advanced cancers achieving remission following consumption of tea extract made from papaya leaves

Dr. Nam Dang of the University of Florida and colleagues exposed a broad range of lab-grown tumors, including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas, to four strengths of papaya leaf extract and measured the effect after 24 hours. Papaya slowed the growth of tumors in all the cultures.

The team of researchers found that the papaya leaf extract boosted the production chemicals that regulate the immune system, the key signalling molecules called Th1-type cytokines.

"This regulation of the immune system, in addition to papaya's direct anti tumour effect on various cancers, suggests possible therapeutic strategies that use the immune system to fight cancers."

Dr Dang said researchers found no toxic effects on normal cells, avoiding a common and devastating consequence of many cancer therapy regimens.

However, the success in reducing cancer in laboratory cell cultures must next be replicated in animal studies before human clinical trials can even be initiated. If you are thinking of adding this therapy to your current anti-cancer treatment you should talk your doctor and follow his instructions diligently.

If you wish to try papaya leaf tea as a preventative, we could only manage to locate the following from

Dr Hulda Regehr Clark (similar recipes are found in “Papaya Leaf as a Malaria Prophylactic” compiled by Dawn Berkelaar for the prevention of malaria):

Wash and partly dry several medium-size papaya leaves. Cut them up like cabbage and place them in a saucepan with 2 quarts/ litres of water. Bring the water and leaves to the boil and simmer without a lid until the water is reduced by half. Strain the liquid and bottle in glass containers. The concentrate will keep in the refrigerator for three to four days. If it becomes cloudy, it should be discarded. The recommended dosage in the original recipe is 3 Tablespoons/ 50ml three times a day.

Prevent Cancer

Anyone can get cancer.

One of the biggest factors that can make a person more likely to get cancer is age: 3 out of 4 cancers are found in people aged 55 or older.

There's no cure for cancer and, sadly, there are no preventive measures that completely eliminate a person's risk of getting cancer. But there are several preventative measures and lifestyle changes that you can make to reduce your risk and live a healthier life.

Let’s go through these simple, easy to adopt changes tomorrow.

Journal Reference:

Noriko Otsuki, Nam H. Dang, Emi Kumagai, Akira Kondo, Satoshi Iwata, Chikao Morimoto. Aqueous extract of Carica papaya leaves exhibits anti-tumor activity and immunoodulatory effects. J Ethnopharmacology. 2010 Feb 17; 127(3): 760-767

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