Supplements containing New Zealand grown papaya leaf extract will soon be produced in Malaysia as a treatment for dengue fever and age-related illnesses like Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
A papaya tree before it has been harvested of leaves. Photo: Supplied / Raymond Young
The project was started by Queenstown-based company Fuller Young International, which recently partnered with the University of Nottingham in Malaysia to further test papaya leaf extracts in order to develop functional food products.
Fuller Young International managing director Raymond Young, who is based in Tokyo, said after a number of years, it was exciting for the company to be close to releasing a commercial product.
Young said papaya had long been used in traditional herbal remedies in tropical areas to treat dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus, along with other ailments.
Studies have shown that carpaine found in papaya leaves has an anti-thrombocytopenic effect; sustaining or increasing platelet counts which form clots to stop bleeding and is beneficial in the recovery from the virus.
Clinical testing on people was underway, with the next step the commercialisation of papaya leaf extract products.
A papaya tree after its leaves have been harvested. Photo: Supplied / Raymond Young
The research team at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia is being led by Dr Ching Lik Hii, who said the process had been a challenge during the Covid-19 pandemic, with hospitals under stress which had led to delays in conducting clinical tests.
The team had undertaken a study extracting carpaine from papaya grown in Malaysia, finding that young leaves contained the highest amount of the compound and were the best source of material for the future development of drugs to treat dengue fever.
Young said it expected to receive the clinical test results within a few weeks and would then introduce a supplement containing papaya leaf extract to the market.
Fuller Young International had grown its first variety of papaya, Wakatengu, in Kerikeri under the supervision of Plant and Food Research, harvesting the leaves when the plants were around a year old.
He said the leaves contained active compounds that were up to 10 percent higher than what was found in papaya plants grown in other countries.
Bins full of papaya leaves being loaded in Kerikeri for shipment to the factory for processing into extract. Photo: Supplied / Raymond Young
The extraction method developed with Callaghan Innovation also resulted in carpaine that was 12 times higher than other results from methods used overseas.
Young said it could make a huge difference for the millions of people who suffered from tropical diseases.
A papaya plantation in Kerikeri. Photo: Supplied / Raymond Young
The incidence of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, has risen dramatically around the world in recent decades with the World Health Organisation estimating there are around 390 million infections of the virus, each year.
"In the early stages of getting the dengue virus, you take the extract and it should increase the platelet count and within 24 hours you will get an effect and that will stop the virus getting worse and hopefully you will get better in about three days.
"If we could save the suffering of just a small percentage of those people, it would be a huge plus."
Young said further research would illustrate exactly how the papaya leaf extract interacted with human cells and the next stage was to study its effects on cancer.
Following the commercialisation of papaya leaf extract supplements, Fuller Young International would be seeking more papaya growers.
