Hi Bud,
I was born and raised in Venezuela. As you sure know, papaya (we call it “lechosa”, meaning milky, because of the thick irritant milk it produces while not ripen) is a fruit originary of tropical Central and South America. It is found in large quantities and different varieties in this country and don’t exaggerate if I tell you it’s part of our daily diet and that you can find papaya plants even in the backyards. I have a plant on mine.
Besides being a strong proteolytic substance, papain has strong anti-inflammatory properties. It shares these characteristics with pineapple, which contains bromelin (the pineapple is a bromelia also originary of South America and very abundant here) a strong proteolytic and anti-inflammatory chemical, too. We know about these anti-inflammatory properties and eat them in large amounts as medicine either to aid digestion or to aid in pain relief of arthritic or musculoescheletal origin.
The point I’m trying to make is that I’m not sure about applying a papain creme, but ingesting large amounts of it (I have done it for years as almost anyone in this country) is healthy and might help you in your pursuit. At the very least, it will help with inflammation and soreness from PE, but will never harm you. It doesn’t have to be eaten the same way always, you can prepare a delicious drink by mixing in a blender, adding some water, ice, sugar and a dash of lemon. Think about eating pineapple (don’t mix them together, at different hours), the greatest amount of bromelin is in its peel. You just boil it, pass it through the electric mixer, strain it and drink it with a little sugar, if you like.
Take care,