| HABIT : A small tree usually dioecious with milky juice. |
| LEAVES : Spirally arranged, exstipulate, long-stalked, palmately divided usually 7-fid, lobes ovate, acute, variously lobed. |
| FLOWERS : Bisexual and unisexual. |
| The plants being monoecious or dioecious, the female inflorescences are one to three-flowered, while the terminal flowers are sometimes bisexual or pure female. |
| The flowers are pentamerous and regular. |
| Male flower-Calyx 5 lobed, small, petals 5, united into a slender tube, lobes contorted or valvate. |
| Stamens 10 in two whorls at different levels on the petals, anthers, erect, introrse. |
| Female flower-solitary axillay or in clusters. |
| Calyx as in male, petals at first connivent but finally free, no staminodes, ovary superior, sessile, one celled, unilocular, ovules many, anatropous, on parietal placentas, on 5-lines from the wall. |
| Style short, stigmas 5, lobed. |
| FRUIT : A big fleshy berry. |
| SEEDS : Many, black ovoid, endosperm and aril present. |
| FLOWERING AND FRUITING TIME : Throughout year |
| Different parts of C. papaya, including its leaves, bark, roots, latex, fruit, flowers and seeds, have a wide range of reputed medicinal applications, mostly used in traditional medicine. |
| C. papaya ripened fruits for topical ulcer dressing to promote desloughing, granulation, healing, and reducing odour in chronic skin ulcers. |
| Papain plays an important role in biological processes in all living organisms. Papain, also called as papaya proteinase I, is a cysteine protease enzyme present in papaya. |
