Papaya leaf juice can be used to prevent and treat dengue

Papaya (Carica papaya) leaves have been observed to have immunomodulatory and anti-thrombocytopenic activity by researchers from Jamia Hamdard University in India. This finding, which was published in the journal Pharmaceutical Biology, highlighted the potential use of papaya leaf extracts in treating dengue.

• Recently, there has been a rise in the number of people suffering from dengue, which wreaks havoc on the immune system. Patients who suffer from this disease also experience other health problems including headaches, high blood pressure, mental disorders, liver damage, excessive bleeding, and thrombocytopenia.
• Thrombocytopenia, which is also associated with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, hypersplenism, aplastic anemia, chikungunya, is a condition characterized by low platelet or thrombocyte counts in the blood.
• Papaya leaves are commonly used as natural remedies for dengue because they can increase platelet count and protect the liver from potential viral damage. Moreover, they are also used in traditional medicine as remedies for wounds, blood disorders, jaundice, and malaria.
• Previous studies have shown that papaya leaves have anti-inflammatory, antitumor, immunomodulatory, and antioxidant activities. These could be attributed to the presence of bioactive compounds like alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, phenolic acid, cyanogenic glycosides, and glucosinolates.
• In this study, the researchers determined the in vivo ability of papaya leaf extracts to prevent thrombocytopenia in Wistar rats using platelet and leucocyte count as the basis. Additionally, they determined the immunomodulatory activity of the extracts in Swiss albino mice based on delayed-type hypersensitivity, hemagglutination titer, and carbon clearance.
• The authors also determined the amount of myricetin, caffeic acid, trans-ferulic acids, and kaempferol in the papaya leaf extracts.

From these experiments, the researchers saw that papaya leaf extracts increased the number of platelets, which shows that it has anti-thrombocytopenic activity. Moreover, they also observed immunomodulatory activity in the treated rats. To tie it all together, they identified the presence of the bioactive compounds that are potentially responsible for these activities.

Read the full text of the study at this link.

For more articles about the health benefits of papayas, visit NaturalHealth.news.

Journal Reference:

Anjum V, Arora P, Ansari SH, Najmi AK, Ahmad S. ANTITHROMBOCYTOPENIC AND IMMUNOMODULATORY POTENTIAL OF METABOLICALLY CHARACTERIZED AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF CARICA PAPAYA LEAVES. Pharmaceutical Biology. 24 August 2017;55(1). DOI: 10.1080/13880209.2017.1346690