Vol. 12, Issue 9 (2023)

The fruits, leaves, seeds, and latex of the herbaceous plant Carica papaya are all used as medicines. The biological activity and medical uses of papaya have advanced significantly over the past few decades, and the fruit is increasingly valued for its nutraceutical properties. The leaves of papaya contain several active components and presence of these compounds makes papaya leaf an abundant source of health benefits. Due to the local availability and low cost of the leaf and understanding the therapeutic potential, people have started consuming papaya leaves by several thermal processes water boiled with papaya leaf, papaya leaf juice etc. Hence the study was carried out to find out the impact on bioactive compounds after pre- treatment and drying method in papaya leaves. In the present study the papaya leaves were dried using different pre-treatments like plain tray drying, Immersing in the hot water before drying, steaming before drying and shade drying. The various bioactive compounds analyzed are polyphenols, carotenoids, flavanoids, tannins, alkaloids, saponins and total antioxidants. The results indicates that hot water immersed tray dried leaf powder had the highest content of polyphenols-135.42 mg/g, carotenoids-0.092 mg/g and tannins-82.95 mg/g. In case of flavanoids- 67.24 µg/mg, saponins-33.11% and total antioxidants-211.78 µg/mg steamed-tray dried leaf powder showed a positive effect. It was observed that the alkaloid-15.12% content was highest in plain dried leaf powder. Shade dried leaf powder possessed lowest values in all the bioactive compounds. In conclusion, it’s been observed that pre-treatment and different drying methods have positive effect on the bioactive compounds of papaya leaves.