Starwest BotanicalsPapain Powder 2,000 USP/mg 1 Lbs

Papain has been used for centuries as a natural meat tenderizer.It can also be used to kill worms and parasites. (According to the University of Maryland medical center, "Digestive enzymes will help restore your intestinal tract to its normal state, which makes it inhospitable to parasites. Papain is an enzyme from the papaya plant that may help kill worms when taken 30 minutes before or after meals.*") Many double blind studies have verified its efficacy for this purpose.I bought it for this reason, not to use as a tenderizer. (Most of us have at least a few of those intruders in our bodies, which we've picked up from eating pork, eating sushi, or just from touching other people who have worms or parasites.... it's good to clean them out once in a while.)COMMON WAYS TO TAKE PAPAIN:1) You could eat pineapple or papaya every day (both contain papain) (I like both foods, but eating them both every day could be pricey and get a little monotonous.)2) You could eat papaya and papaya seeds (also rich in papain) (again, great when it's in season, but it's not always available).3) You could take papaya enzyme tablets. (Not always a good idea, for reasons described below.)4) You could take pure papain, by taking this product.MY EXPERIENCE:After reading about the benefits of papain, I decided to try some.I first bought a bottle of "chewable Papaya Enzyme" tablets from American Health. I was disappointed to realize that the tablets were mostly sugar and calcium carbonate, with a small amount of papain added. They were essentially sugar pills - not a good thing to take if you're wanting to kill parasites, which love sugar.Then it occurred to me to try taking papain by the spoonful. (A pineapple might last a week if you stretch it; the amount of powder in this bag could well last a year.)So I did a search on Amazon and found this product. Since ordering it, I've taken it several times, and can report that:* It tastes okay... kind of nondescript... perhaps very slightly bitter. It's not sweet like pineapple or papaya. Most people would probably want to mix it in with some juice or yogurt. But you could also just take it by the spoonful and chase it with some water.* It smells okay. (No smell at all that I can detect)* It mixes smoothly.* I feel like something good is happening when I take it. I've been using it as part of an anti-parasite regimen. Some antiparasiticals, like wormwood, can be dangerous, so it's nice to find one that has been vetted in scientific studies as being safe.WARNINGS and CAUTIONS:* Papain has been used for centuries as a form of male birth control. It does NOT reduce testosterone but appears to reduce sperm motility. So if you're trying to conceive, I would not recommend taking it. (Though if you're trying NOT to have a kid, it could come in handy.)* My stomach growls sometimes when I take it. I assume that's a good sign actually, an enzyme's at work down there. But you might not want to take it before a date or important business meeting, if that happens to you.--------------------* To read a scientific study about using papaya to kill worms in Nigerian children, do a web search for these words:"Effectiveness of dried Carica papaya seeds against human intestinal parasitosis: a pilot study."According to the study, "(Papaya seeds) offers a cheap, natural, harmless, readily available monotherapy and preventive strategy against intestinal parasitosis."

Update: went to order again. First bag was $21.00. Second bag was $26.00. Now price is $37.00!! Looking for a better price on same or similar product. This is my third time going to order this product. I eat a lot of steak, some not prime, haha, but this solved any toughness issues. The first bag lasted 2 years. I put powder in a shaker and sprinkle it on a few minutes prior to cooking. Do not marinate meat in this powder, will turn any meat to mush. Sprinkle on like salt and cook within 5 minutes or so. I did not detect any bad smell, seems tasteless to me but works great. I used to order a liquid from Amazon that worked great but is no longer available. After trying many others I will stick to this product for cost and convenience.

I cooked two 10oz sirloins in the cast iron skillet and never had them come out so tender before. As someone else suggested, I used about 1/4 tsp of powder in about 2 Tablespoons of water. Poked holes in the meat all over and worked in the liquid in on both sides - one piece of meat was well seasoned, already. Gave them about three minutes and cooked to rare and medium rare. I don't know when I've had a more tender piece of steak - in a restaurant, or, at home.

I decided to try adding 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of papain powder to dried beans that I was soaking, to see if it would improve the digestibility. My nutritionist used to recommend Indo, a meat tenderizer, for the same purpose, because of the papaya enzymes included. Once Indo changed their formulation, I thought I'd give this a try. I believe it's been very helpful, especially when soaking black beans. I see less of a positive effect soaking navy beans. I encourage others who give this a try to report in.What I do is rinse the beans, soak them in water to cover for 8 hours (at room temperature), into which I've added the papain powder. I then drain the beans and treat them as if I were sprouting them for a day or 2, in order to let more of the starches gradually convert to more digestible forms. Hope you find this helpful!

Seems to work well as a tenderizer. First time I tried it was with some Fajitas (skirt steak) and I over did it or left it on too long. It turned to mush. Next few times I used much less on steak and it was much better. Still trying to get the hang of it as far as amount and time left on the meat. So what I do is apply a light coat on the meat and then add my regular spices. I leave it on 15 to 30 minutes or more depending on the thickness of the steak. Have only tried it on beef. I also tried it on mosquito bites and it also seems to work well. Can't speak for bee stings. This amount should last me for a lifetime, lol. I will be giving some away to friends and relatives. Mine had no smell whatsoever and no taste either.

I research this product before purchasing mainly for a detox, not realizing many benefits it has I had read that it held inflation , healing infection, so on prior to ordering I had a tooth that was a little achy for about 4 days then gradually escalated to full on raw nerve pai , really unbearable. In the mean time this product arrived I started taking it to detox, called my dentist obviously a abscesses tooth , ugh!! Id been taking this for two days in Gatorade for my detox , my tooth was in severe pain, and literally I could feel pain subsiding. It worked on my infected dental issue. This stuff is amazing.

As some other reviewers have noted, it has a very foul smell. I don't know why others say there is no odor at all, but it's bad enough to be stomach turning. I tried the powder by itself, and surprisingly it had no flavor in the small amount I sampled. On my first attempt at tenderizing a tough chuck steak, it did work well. I used a couple of teaspoons for about 1.5 - 2.0 lbs of meat, which I also ran through a mechanical tenderizer. I used too much powder/let it go too long though and the meat was too soft. I may try again, however, the beneficial effects are probably outweighed by the odor, which is hard to get past while trying to use it as a food prep item.