Greener Journal of Biological Sciences

The research investigated the chemotaxonomic characteristics of Carica papaya L., a perennial plant belonging to Caricaceae.The materials were fixed in FAA, sectioned and photomicrograph taken as described by Wahua.The morphological description revealed the cylindrical stem is greenish gray up to 10m high having leaf scars with hollow spongy-fibrous tissues.The leaf lamina is orbicular and 25 to75cm wide.The petiole is 30 to 100cm long, and spirally clustered near stem apex.The shoot system exudes white milky latex.The flowers are yellowish, funnelshaped and often clustered in leaf axil.Three types of flowers are observed in Carica papaya: the female flowers are 3 to 5 cm long with large functional pistil and ovoid-shaped parietal ovary; male flowers have long panicles, 10 stamens in 2 rows while hermaphrodite flowers are larger with 5-carpellate ovaries.The hollow berry fruits are smooth and spherical up to 10 to 50cm long with fleshy orange or red pulp.Two varieties are known, the red and yellow fleshed fruit types.Seeds are numerous, oval and rounded gray or black in shape, embedded in gelatinous aril.Stomata are anomocytic.The petiole, midrib and stem anatomy showed the same cell arrangement pattern from the epidermal, hypodermis, general cortex to the pith with presence of laticiferous cells.The hypodermis is made of collenchyma while parenchyma occupied the cortex and pith.Node is unilacunar.Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of: flavonoids, saponins, tannins, cardiac glycoside and steroids while terpenoids were absent.The study enhanced information on existing literature.