Abstract: Camel meat serves as an excellent source of high-quality protein for human consumption. However, its relatively high connective tissue content renders the meat tough and challenging to chew, diminishing consumer acceptance. This study investigated the effects of ultrasonic and papain treatment on enhancing the tenderness and overall quality of camel meat. Univariate experiments were conducted to evaluate ultrasonic time, ultrasonic power, and papain concentration, and the response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to screen for the optimal tenderization process. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of ultrasonic treatment combined with papain on camel meat quality was analyzed in this paper. The findings demonstrated that tenderness of camel meat was significantly improved (P<0.05). Specifically, the optimal tenderization conditions were as follows: A papain concentration of 120 U/mL, an ultrasound duration of 50 minutes, and an ultrasound power of 180 W. Under these optimal conditions, compared to untreated meat, the shear force and lightness (L^*) in the co-treatment group were significantly reduced (P<0.05), cooking loss decreased by 8.64%, while texture profile analysis showed significant improvements (P<0.05). Therefore, the above data indicate that the treatment significantly improved the tenderness of camel meat. Additionally, the electrophoresis results showed lighter bands at 220 kDa and 100 kDa, indicating degradation of the myosin heavy chain and decomposition of myofibrillar proteins. And the α-helix content of myofibrillar proteins decreased from 46.21% to 29.40%, while the β-turn content decreased from 25.11% to 13.08%. Conversely, the contents of β-sheet and random coils increased.