Chinese Medical Journal

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Chinese Medical Journal, 74: 17-36, Janwary-February, 1956.

THE COMBINED USE OF PUMPKIN SEED AND ARECA NUT IN THE TREATMENT OF TAPEWORM INFECTIONS

L. C. FENG (7% A431) _ Department of Parasitology, Chinese Union Medical College, Peking

INTRODUCTION

Areca nut is found in anthelmintic prescriptions in old Chinese medical literature published more than twelve hundred years ago. For centuries it has been employed either in combination with other drugs or alone for the treatment of tapeworm infections. In 1936 Liu(1) first advocated the use of this remedy in the treatment of tapeworm infections in modern medicine in China. In 1949 Feng and his associates(2) first made investigations on the action of areca nut on tapeworms and found that areca nut had, in varying degrees, a paralytic effect on Taenia solium, Taenia saginata and Hymenolepis nana; the last named species being the most sensitive to the action of the drug, T. solium the next and T. saginata the least. In a 1-2 per cent extract of areca nut in normal saline, H. nana was found paralyzed almost instaneously. In the same solution, the period from the time the head of T. solium lost its power of attachment to the time the head and immature segments became paralyzed was three to ten minutes; while with T. saginata the period was three to twelve minutes. The action of areca nut extract on the gravid segments of T. solium and T. saginata was less marked, as they became flaccid in ten minutes and twenty-five minutes respectively. Although the gravid segments of both species became flaccid under the influence of areca nut extract, they were never completely paralyzed, and the residual activity was more marked in T. saginata than in T. solium.

Beside the extract, Feng and his associates also prepared an areca bismuth compound which proved effective in the treatment of Taenia taeneaformis and Dipylidium caninum infection in a cat.

Feng(3) in 1950 further investigated the therapeutic effect of areca nut decoction, areca nut extract and areca bismuth compound in the treatment of human tapeworm infections. The results demonstrated clearly the difference in the therapeutic effect of areca nut preparations in T. solium and T. saginata. He treated 22 cases of T. solium infection with different areca nut preparations—decoction in 6 cases, extract in 10 cases,