7 benefits of papaya

1. Skin whitening

Papaya has a potent skin lightening action owing to its exfoliating action and direct skin lightening effect of enzyme papain.

The simplest and quickest way to use papaya for skin lightening is to rub the inside of the papaya peel on your skin. Leave for 5-10 minutes and wash off. You would get instant skin lightening and moisturization.

You can also make skin brightening papaya face pack by mixing following:

3 spoons Mashed papaya
1 spoon besan or chickpea flour
1 spoon of sandalwood powder
5 drops of lemon juice

2. Reducing unwanted hair

Studies show that papain enzyme from the peel of papaya can inhibit hair growth (Source). Rub the peel of unripe green papaya on the skin gently for 1 minutes, leave the residue for 15 to 30 minutes and rinse. You can repeat this every day provided you do not get any side effects. Papain can irritate sensitive skin. Discontinue if you get irritation, burning, rash or redness.

Ayurveda mentions that chickpea flour and turmeric ubtan can help in reducing hair. You can make papaya scrub to remove unwanted hair at home by mixing:

2 spoons chickpea flour
¼ spoon turmeric
Mashed papaya

Rub this paste over unwanted hair and rinse off after 10 minutes. You can use this daily provided it does not cause redness, burning or rash.

3. Exfoliating dead skin

Papain enzyme magically restores the even-toned look of your skin by accelerating the shedding of dead skin cells. No wonders many scrubs available in the market has papaya as one of the ingredients, for example:

Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant has papain as an exfoliating agent.
Biotique Bio Papaya Revitalizing Tan-Removal Scrub has papaya along with many other herbs recommended by Ayurveda.

4. Repairing aged skin

Papaya reverses the skin ageing owing to its skin repairing, exfoliating and hydrating action. Few hypothesis supports it has direct anti-aging action as well. Papain enzyme reduces wrinkles by modulating the collagen and elastic fibres in the dermis.

While home remedies are definitely worth trying. But, when it come to anti-ageing, Vitamin C serum and retinoids are a must have.

5. Moisturising dry skin

The pulp of ripe papaya fruit providing hydration and nutrition to the skin owing to its water, carbohydrate, and fat content. Instead of peel, use the pulp of ripe papaya. Mash it and just leave on your skin for 5-10 minutes.

6. Healing cuts and burns

Did you know that papaya has been studied extensively for its wound healing benefits? The papain enzyme helps in healing of the wound, It keeps the bacteria away and prevents the scar from getting bigger.

You can simply put the flesh of papaya fruit on fresh cuts, wounds, and even burns to promote a speedy recovery.

7. Papaya for sensitive skin

You can try all the above recipes for sensitive skin but with slight modifications. However, people with sensitive and dry skin should use the pulp part of the ripe papaya.

Avoid peel or unripe green papaya. It has a higher concentration of latex and papain. Both increase the chances of getting either allergy or irritation. Do patch test before using of papaya.