Fruit facts: Papaya nutrition facts

Papaya nutrition facts > Papaya facts > Health benefits
Papaya (Carica papaya) is a tree like plant belonging to genus Carica.
This plant is tropical in origin and is native plant of northern South America and southern Central America. The ripe fruit is eaten raw while the unripe one is used in food preparations. The unripe fruit contains the enzyme papain and is used in cuisine for tenderizing meat.
Papaya fruit is an excellent source of vitamin C and 100g of it fulfils the daily requirement of vitamin C. It contains fair amount of potassium and is very low in sodium thus becoming the fruit of choice for people with hypertension. It has considerable amount of vitamin A, vitamin B6 and dietary fibre. Papaya has the benefit of antioxidant due to presence of phytochemicals and cartenoids.
Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion. Refuse like seeds and skin form 33% of the fruit weight.

Papaya tree (enlarge)

Fruit facts: Papaya nutrition

Nutrients	Units	Value per 100g	One cup cubes 140g	Flesh of one medium size 300g
Water	g	88.83	124.36	270.04
Energy	kcal	39	55	119
Protein	g	0.61	0.85	1.85
Carbohydrate	g	9.81	13.73	29.82
Lipid (fat)	g	0.14	0.20	0.43
Sugars	g	5.90	8.26	17.94
Dietary fibre	g	1.8	2.5	5.5
Ash	g	0.61	0.85	1.85

Fruit facts: Papaya minerals nutrition

Minerals nutrition	Units	Value per 100g	One cup cubes 140g	Flesh of one medium size 300g
Calcium	mg	24	34	73
Selenium	mcg	0.6	0.8	1.8
Iron	mg	0.10	0.14	0.30
Manganese	mg	0.01	0.02	0.03
Magnesium	mg	10	14	30
Copper	mg	0.02	0.02	0.05
Phosphorus	mg	5	7	15
Zinc	mg	0.07	0.10	0.21
Sodium	mg	3	4	9
Potassium	mg	257	360	781

Fruit facts: Papaya vitamin nutrition

Vitamin nutrition	Units	Value per 100g	One cup cubes 140g	Flesh of one medium size 300g
Vitamin C	mg	61.8	86.5	187.9
Thiamin	mg	0.03	0.04	0.082
Riboflavin	mg	0.032	0.045	0.10
Niacin	mg	0.34	0.47	1.03
Pantothenic acid	mg	0.22	0.31	0.66
Vitamin B6	mg	0.02	0.03	0.06
Folate	mcg	38	53	116
Choline	mg	6.1	8.5	18.5
Vitamin A, IU	IU	1094	1532	3326
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.73	1.02	2.22
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	mcg	2.6	3.6	7.9

Fruit facts: Papaya lipids nutrition

Lipids nutrition facts	Units	Value per 100g	One cup cubes 140g	Flesh of one medium size 300g
Saturated fatty acid	g	0.04	0.06	0.13
Monounsaturated fatty acid	g	0.04	0.05	0.12
Polyunsaturated faty acid	g	0.03	0.04	0.09

Fruit facts: Papaya amino acids nutrition

Amino acids nutrition facts	Units	Value per 100g	One cup cubes 140g	Flesh of one medium size 300g
Tryptophan	g	0.01	0.01	0.02
Threonine	g	0.01	0.02	0.03
Isoleucine	g	0.01	0.01	0.02
Leucine	g	0.02	0.02	0.05
Lysine	g	0.03	0.04	0.08
Methionine	g	0.002	0.003	0.006
Phenylalanine	g	0.01	0.01	0.03
Tyrosine	g	0.01	0.01	0.02
Valine	g	0.01	0.01	0.03
Arginine	g	0.01	0.01	0.03
Histidine	g	0.01	0.01	0.02
Alanine	g	0.01	0.02	0.04
Aspartic acid	g	0.05	0.07	0.15
Glutamic acid	g	0.03	0.05	0.10
Glycine	g	0.02	0.03	0.06
Proline	g	0.01	0.01	0.03
Serine	g	0.02	0.02	0.05

Source: USDA National Nutrient Database