Does papaya enzyme help with a yeast infection? What the research does and doesn't show

The evidence doesn't support papain, or any papaya product sold as a supplement, as something that clears a yeast infection in people — no human trial exists. Two lab and mouse studies found an essential oil pressed from papaya seeds acted against Candida yeast in a dish and in mice with a bloodstream infection, using a preparation and a route of exposure that don't match a vaginal yeast infection or a swallowed capsule.

What the evidence doesn't support

It doesn't support papain — the digestive-enzyme product sold as "papaya enzyme" — or any oral papaya supplement as a treatment for a vaginal yeast infection, oral thrush, or any other Candida infection in people; no human trial testing papain, or any papaya product, in people with a yeast infection was found. The animal and lab research below used a completely different preparation — papaya seed essential oil — tested against a different kind of infection than the one most people are searching this for.

What the trials found

Both relevant studies used papaya seed essential oil (PSEO), an oil pressed from the seeds and mostly made up of one compound, benzyl isothiocyanate — a separate material from papain, and not something typically sold in a digestive "papaya enzyme" product. A 2025 lab study tested PSEO directly against Candida tropicalis, a species of yeast that causes serious bloodstream infections in hospitalized patients, and found it damaged the yeast's cell wall and stopped it from growing at very low concentrations in a dish. The same research group then injected PSEO into mice with a drug-resistant C. tropicalis bloodstream infection and found the mice's survival and other measured outcomes differed from untreated infected mice; the study also gave a separate group of mice fluconazole, a standard antifungal drug, without this review drawing a conclusion about how the two treatments compared. A second, related study repeated a similar design against Candida albicans, the species most often responsible for vaginal yeast infections and thrush, again in mice with a bloodstream infection rather than a localized one, again using injected PSEO rather than a swallowed or topically applied product, and again alongside a fluconazole comparison group.

Neither study tested PSEO, papain, or any papaya product by mouth, on skin, or vaginally; neither tested a localized yeast infection of the kind most people mean by "yeast infection"; and neither has any human data. A concentrated essential oil injected into an animal's bloodstream is not the same substance, dose, or exposure as a papaya enzyme capsule swallowed by a person.

Questions people ask

Does papaya enzyme help with a yeast infection?

No human trial testing papain, or any papaya product taken orally or applied locally, for a yeast infection was found. The only related research injected a different papaya preparation — seed essential oil — into mice with a bloodstream Candida infection, which doesn't answer this question for a person with a vaginal or oral yeast infection.

Can papaya seeds cure a yeast infection?

No. No human trial has tested papaya seeds, or an oil extracted from them, against a yeast infection in a person. The mouse and lab research above used a concentrated seed-oil extract against a bloodstream infection, not seeds eaten or taken as a supplement, and not a localized infection.

Does papaya enzyme kill candida?

A lab study found papaya seed essential oil — not papain — stopped Candida yeast from growing in a dish, at concentrations far more concentrated than anything in a swallowed supplement. That's a lab result against isolated yeast cells, not a demonstrated effect from taking a papaya enzyme product.

When to talk to a doctor

A suspected yeast infection, especially a first occurrence, one that doesn't respond to an over-the-counter antifungal, or one that keeps coming back, is worth seeing a doctor about rather than working through with a supplement search. Papaya enzyme products are not a treatment for a yeast infection or any other infection. If you're immunocompromised or being treated in a hospital setting, a Candida infection needs medical management, not a home remedy.

Related reading: does papaya enzyme help with a parasite cleanse or detox?, papaya enzyme: what the research does and doesn't show, and papaya enzyme side effects.