What is the vitamin, mineral and protein content of the "pawpaw" fruit?

johnbirm03

The "PawPaw fruit" grows wildly in North America.
The benefits have been strongly encouraged to add to one's diet.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/what-are-pawpaws-wild-fruit-midwest-how-to-prep-and-eat-pawpaws.html

I hope that Cronometer is able to disseminate the values of the PawPaw.

I really enjoy the benefits of your website!
Thank you for your time.
Warmest regards,
John

Vickie

I found pawpaw nutrition here! http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/cooking.htm#a1

Hilary

Hi @johnbirm03 , thanks for the suggestion!

We currently do not have this in our database. I will have the curation team look into finding the nutrition information for this food. Before we add new foods to our database we must find a high quality source for the nutrient information.
Meanwhile you can add a custom food for this food by following these steps: https://cronometer.com/help/foods/#addfood

TheRegents

Source NUTTAB 2010 (Food Standard Aus, http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/science/monitoringnutrients/nutrientables/Pages/default.aspx)

Edit: Oh, another name for pawpaw is papaya and papaya is in the USDA database: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/09226?fgcd=&manu=&format=Abridged&count=&max=25&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=Papaya&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

Pawpaw
Description Scale Value
Energy, including dietary fibre kJ 142
Moisture g 89.3
Protein g .4
Nitrogen g .06
Fat g .1
Ash g .3
Dietary fibre g 2.3
Fructose g 3.3
Glucose g 3.6
Sucrose g 0
Maltose g 0
Lactose g 0
Total sugars g 6.9
Starch g 0
Available carbohydrate, without sugar alcohols g 6.9
Available carbohydrate, with sugar alcohols g 6.9
Citric acid g .1
Lactic acid g 0
Malic acid g .2
Oxalic acid g 0
Quinic acid g 0
Calcium (Ca) mg 28.000
Iron (Fe) mg .5
Magnesium (Mg) mg 14.000
Potassium (K) mg 140.000
Sodium (Na) mg 7.000
Zinc (Zn) mg .3
Thiamin (B1) mg .03
Riboflavin (B2) mg .03
Niacin (B3) mg .3
Niacin equivalents mg .37
Alpha carotene ug 0
Beta carotene ug 240.000
Cryptoxanthin ug 1350.000
Beta carotene equivalents ug 915.000
Retinol ug 0
Retinol equivalents ug 152
Vitamin C mg 60.000
C16 %T 0
Total saturated fatty acids (%) %T 0
C18:1 %T 0
Total monounsaturated fatty acids (%) %T 0
C18:2w6 %T 0
C18:3w3 %T 0
C20:5w3 %T 0
Total polyunsaturated fatty acids (%) %T 0
Total long chain omega 3 fatty acids (%) %T 0
C16FD g 0
Total saturated fatty acids (g) g 0
C18:1FD g 0
Total monounsaturated fatty acids (g) g 0
C18:2w6FD g 0
C18:3w3FD g 0
C20:5w3FD mg 0
Total polyunsaturated fatty acids (g) g 0
Total long chain omega 3 fatty acids (mg) mg 0
Cholesterol mg 0

Vickie

On the webpage @johnbirm03 linked they argue that pawpaw is not papaya.

That pawpaw means papaya in other parts of the world does not help any, either. (Despite Baloo's "Bare Necessities" shout-out in the Disney version of The Jungle Book, pawpaws are unrelated to papayas.)

TheRegents

Unfortunately that's the problem with vernacular names compared to botanical names. In Australia and Papua New Guinea (perhaps elsewhere but these are the only two locations where I am familiar with pawpaw from), pawpaw and papaya are the same fruit (that of Carica papaya) and the common name is used interchangeably

Edit: I should add that the nutrition info I pasted above from NUTTAB is called "Pawpaw" in the database (not papaya)

johnbirm03

Dear Regents and Dear Vickie,
Thank you kindly for your time and energy in compiling the extensive nutritional aspects of the "paw-paw" papaya of eastern Texas...and North America.
apparently these fruits do not keep well at all...and ripen too fast for much shelf time, which is why most folks have forgotten about the tree.
I think it would make great marmalade.
Cheers.

Michael108

pawpaw is an indigenous fruit that grows wild in Southern North America. Its not the same as papaya. (carina papaya). It is Asimina Triloba. See wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba

Nutritional values are available in a page from the University of Kentucky:

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/cooking.htm#a2

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Everyone,

I appreciate the time and effort you have all taken to find the nutrition information for pawpaw. Thank you for providing your sources! I have recently added "Pawpaw, Orange Flesh, Raw" to our database, using the nutrition information from the Australian Food Composition Database.

While looking at the nutrient composition given on the Kentucky State University website, I noticed the values for Pawpaw are given for pulp with skin, although the skin is not considered edible. They also note "probably much of the dietary fiber, and possibly some of the fat, would be thrown away with the skin." Given that these values would not quite represent the nutrition found in the edible portion, I was wondering if y'all would still like to have this added to the database. What do you think?

Cheers,

Michael108

Just as we do not include the nutritional value of banana skins or orange peels, it makes sense to not include the inedible skin of the pawpaw. I will research if there is another source that does that.

Michael108

I have written to a Dr Brannan of Ohio University
https://www.ohio.edu/chsp/facultystaff/bios/robert-brannan.cfm
asking him about the pawpaw nutrients sans skin and seeds.
He has been studying pawpaws for a decade and will probably come through with something.

Michael108

Dr Brannan says that info does not exist yet. He is working to get it onto the USDA food composition Database.

TheRegents

I have no idea where my comment went

TheRegents

My comment got deleted. I won't type it all out again because it took too long but I'll summarise.

AUSNUT and NUTTAB refer to the fruit they give an analysis for as paw paw or pawpaw. However in the nutrient analysis table they have the word papaya in parenthesis after using the name pawpaw. For pawpaw they give the following information:

The majority of nutrient data were derived from samples of orange fleshed paw paw, purchased when in season, from 5 outlets in Sydney during 1983/84 (Wills et al 1986). Retinol, cholesterol and fatty acids were imputed.

A brief search of the literature seems to indicate, to me, that Wills et al may have been referring to papaya (Carica papaya) rather than pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Other papers that cite Wills et al include papers about both species. Wills et al don't seem to specify what species they're talking about which seems like an oversight to me considering the known unreliability & variability of vernacular names. Wills et al (and Wills with different co-authors in other papers) doesn't seem to give the botanical name of the plant they're talking about and refer to it as "paw paw", "pawpaw" and "Australian pawpaw", but this doesn't help. In my experience the fruit referred to in Australia and Papua New Guinea is usually Asimina triloba; however this means nothing because Australia is a big place and often things have different common names even between towns in close proximity.

Michael108

the pawpaw that grows in SE USA is a distinct fruit . see Wikipedia.
It is getting popular to grow because it is not susceptible to pests.
It cannot be shipped as a fruit because its skin is delicate, but it can be eaten within 3 days of picking and various ways of preparing it as a jam, ice cream etc are being developed. Dr Brannan a food scientist at Ohio University says that there is no current nutritional data on its edible parts , but that he is working on providing that info to the USDA data base. https://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/pawpaw.cfm
https://www.ohio.edu/chsp/facultystaff/bios/robert-brannan.cfm

CorneliaDeyo

I have just been trying to find North American pawpaw information as well. Have just been eating cookies and ice cream I made with pawpaw fruits. This is Asimina triloba, a completely different plant from the Australian "pawpaw"=papaya(?) The Univ. of Kentucky information includes fruit and skin, but no one eats the skin. I found a scholarly Korean study of North American pawpaws grown there, but it is too challenging to incorporate as a new food by me. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323793954_Nutritional_compositions_in_roots_twigs_leaves_fruit_pulp_and_seeds_from_pawpaw_Asimina_triloba_L_Dunal_grown_in_Korea

but at least this article states that they used peeled fruit.

It is dated Feb. 2018.

Karen_Cronometer

Thanks for the references CorneliaDeyo. I added Pawpaw, North American to our database using the values given in this paper.

Cheers!