The papaya is a very healthy fruit but most people do not like eating it because it has a rather unique taste and it is not very sweet. Also, it did not use to be widely available in most countries. The papaya is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, in the genus Carica. It is native to the tropics of the Americas, and was cultivated in Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerican classic cultures. It is sometimes called a “big melon” or a “paw paw” but the North American pawpaw is a different species, in the genus Asimina. The juice has been seen to have an antiproliferative effect on liver cancer cells cultured in the laboratory, probably due to its component of lycopene.