Vasconcellea quercifolia A.St-Hil. (Caricaceae), popularly known as papaya of the woods or jacaratiá, occurs from the south of Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and is considered a Non-Conventional Food Plant (PANC) (Kinupp et al., 2011; Kinupp & Lorenzi, 2014), however, its nutritional characteristics are poorly known. On addition, it is included in the list of the Brazilian flora, considered part of its sociobiodiversity, with feeding value that justifies its marketing in natura or that of its derivatives (Brasil, 2016). Grated medullary parenchyma was used instead of coconut in the preparation of sweets in the past. However, its popular use had been gradually forgotten (Kinupp et al., 2011; Kinupp & Lorenzi, 2014) and was recently resumed with the broad dissemination of PANC's (Kinupp & Lorenzi, 2014) which describe the potentialities of this species (Kinupp & Lorenzi, 2014; Caetano et al., 2008). On light of that, the aim of the present study was to investigate the physical, chemical, and nutritional properties of V. quercifolia to encourage its use in the development of new food products. 2 Materials and methods 2.1 Sample collection Medullary parenchyma and green and ripe fruits were collected from three individuals located in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul (coordinates 29°23.426'; 29°19'49"; 29°19'82" S and 52°04'63"; 52°13'45"; 52°17'40" W) identified as Sample 1, Sample 2 and Sample 3, respectively. Fertile material