Male papaya flowers, priced at millions, are still being rushed to collect

Male papaya flowers are collected by traders to sell to customers.

These days, when Covid-19 infections are increasing rapidly in the community, Mr. Bui Van Hoang - a dealer specializing in selling Northwestern medicinal herbs in Linh Dam, Hanoi - is selling online products with great demand. Among them,male papaya flowerMany city customers order to drink or soak in honey. However, because male papaya trees are very rare, there are times when he cannot collect many to sell to customers.

“Each male papaya flower season is from April to October every year. People in the communes picking on the hillside only collect a small amount, so I collect about 100 kg to dry.

In previous years, this type of flower was mainly sold to traditional medicine pharmacies, traditional medicine practitioners and regular customers. However, since Tet, many people have asked to buy male papaya flowers to nourish their lungs after Covid-19, so there are no products to sell,” said Mr. Hoang.

Dried papaya flowers can be used to make tea to drink as usual or soaked in honey to reduce the bitter taste so children can also use it.

Papaya flowers are on a price fever.

Soaking dried male papaya flowers with honey is also very simple, 1kg of dried male papaya flowers can be soaked with about 2 liters of honey. When soaking, it is best to use a ceramic, earthenware, or glass jar.

After about 1 month, you can use it. Drink 2 small teaspoons every day, both morning and evening after meals to achieve the best effect in supporting treatment and health improvement - he said.

When asked how to identify the difference between male and female papaya flowers, this vendor said: “Female papaya flowers grow close to the trunk, so the flowers are usually large, with only one single flower, not in clusters. Male papaya flowers grow in the leaf axils, have long branches, small calyxes, many flowers and grow in clusters. Therefore, if customers are observant, they will be able to identify them immediately, and sellers cannot mix or blur things up.”

He also warned that the price of male papaya flowers is quite high, from 800,000 to 1.2 million VND/kg depending on the time. Therefore, to avoid confusion between male and female flowers, customers should only buy from reputable medicinal herb sellers.

Male papaya flowers are quite rare, so when demand is high, the price is expensive.

Just 2 weeks after Tet, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, an employee of a media company in Cau Giay (Hanoi), was infected with Covid-19 from a colleague. After 14 days of treatment and quarantine at home, Ms. Thao tested negative and returned to work. However, a month later, she still had a persistent cough, hoarseness and chest tightness. She had a chest X-ray but no damage was found. Many people told her to use male papaya flowers soaked in honey to nourish her lungs after Covid, so she went to buy some.

Through an acquaintance, she found a merchant specializing in selling medicinal herbs in the mountainous region of Son La and ordered 1kg of dried male papaya flowers for 800,000 VND.

When she brought it home, she soaked it in honey and rock sugar to treat coughs. She also saved a little to make water to drink every day.

“Fresh male papaya flowers are half the price of dried male papaya flowers. However, fresh flowers are harder to buy because they are difficult to transport and lose nutrients if kept for a long time. Buying the kind that people have dried and vacuum-packed can be used all year round,” she said.

Dried papaya flowers can be boiled in water or soaked in honey to help reduce the bitter taste.

Sharing about the uses of male papaya flowers, physician Vu Quoc Trung (Vietnam Oriental Medicine Association) said that this is a folk remedy that has the effect of curing diseases such as cough, prolonged asthma, sore throat, detoxification and some other diseases such as blood pressure, cardiovascular disease,... In particular, persistently using male papaya flowers soaked in honey regularly helps reduce the risk of respiratory diseases.

This flower is white, bitter, and can be used directly as food for stir-frying in daily meals or used as medicine after drying. However, depending on the constitution and physical condition of each person, not everyone can use this flower. Therefore, you should learn carefully before using it. With dried papaya flowers, on average, you should only use 10-20g per day./.