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Donal Dunne wrote:

> I recently came across a leaflet in a health food store recommending
> papain as a help to render gluten harmless to celiac patients.

This has been discussed on the list before, but a long time ago. Here is a
summary of those posts:

I posted this:

In the July 1991 issue of "Alternatives - For The Health Conscious
Individual" (by Mountain Home Publishing) there was the following paragraph:

Taking papain [a protein-digesting enzyme in papaya] supplements (500 to
1,000 mg with meals) can help digest wheat gluten. It often works so well
that with supplementation many celiac disease patients can once again eat
wheat products without problems! (Gut 64;5:295-303) Papain can be a
godsend to those people who meticulously have to avoid wheat-containing
products.

Here are the comments on this from subscribers of this mailing list:

From: Julie Anne May <[log in to unmask]>

What the article said is this, the gluten protein with this enzyme is no
longer digested in the intestines, instead it is broken down in the
stomach. With this happening the intestines can't react to gluten, because,
it's already been broken down into a form the body can use. I would not
suggest this as if any of the proteins get past this neat little enzyme you
are back to square one and you have a reaction.

From: Mark London <[log in to unmask]>

I tried papain for a while to see if it would help. It was several years
ago, and I think it might have helped if I ate just a small amount of
wheat, but it did not help if I ate a significant amount. Btw, 500 to 1000
mg if I remember correctly requires a lot of pills. I tried finding studies
concerning papain. All I came up with was one reference to a patient who
found it to help, but it was unclear he was gluten intolerant to begin with
as later he was able to eat wheat without papain. I would think that if it
really did help, we would be hearing much more about it. However, I would
also be interested in seeing what the Gut article says.

From: Joseph Murray, M.D.

If my memory is correct the reference to papain digestion of gluten was
in vitro (in a test tube) and then the digested substance was given to
2-3 celiac patients who did not have an obvious symptom response. Not an
acceptable basis for trusting your health to. I will attempt to refind
the original article in our library basement.

From: Richard Abrams <[log in to unmask]>

In a belated answer to the question about the paper on papain digestion
of gluten by Messer et al in Gut (5), 295-303 (1964), the paper does not
suggest that eating papain will allow a celiac person to eat gluten. The
authors confirmed an earlier report that long PREdigestion (42 hours) of
gluten with a huge excess of crude papain would make it non-toxic when
ingested by a celiac. They showed that pure papain did not detoxify
gluten and suggested that detoxification was brought about by an enzyme,
a contaminant in crude papain, that released ammonia from gluten. This
was one of the early bits of suggestive evidence that glutamine-containing
peptide sequences were important in accounting for gliadin toxicity in
celiacs. Since the authors indicated that the detoxifying enzyme was
both inactive and unstable in the highly acid conditions existing in
the stomach, there is no way that papain ingestion will permit celiacs
to eat gluten-containing food.

From: "David Scheim, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>

I totally agree with the recommendations that Celiacs maintain a totally
gluten-free diet and not rely on anything such as plant enzymes in its
stead until such time as conclusive effects are known. Since trace gluten
pops up everywhere -- even in the lime additive to corn chips (I can't
overstate my disgust with both food manufacturers and the FDA for allowing
such sneaky additions to occur) -- it is reasonable to consider strategies
which could tend to minimize the harmful effects of low levels of ingested
gluten.

I believe that potential benefits of plant enzymes is an interesting
research area to track. I have one paper on papain inactivation of gliadin
and another on order from our library at NIH. I am also tracking the
systemic absorption and activity of orally administered enzymes in another
context, and am finding that hefty dose oral intake can have pronounced
physiological effects without toxicity.

In short I believe that the inadvisability of taking plant enzymes in lieu
of strict adherence to a gluten-free diet should not prevent an open-minded
discussion of the potential benefits of enzymes as a research topic.

From: Malcolm Lubliner <[log in to unmask]>

Like most of us in the ranks of CD, from time to time I accidently consume
something I shouldn't have. I've learned the early signs of it and have had
success chewing Papain tablets. Papain is the enzyme derivative of papaya
and has several beneficial uses. Chewing papain seems to mitigate the
effects of small amounts of gluten intake.