Chinese Medical Journal

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USE OF PUMPKIN SEED WITH ARECA NUT IN TAPEWORM INFECTIONS 29

middie and posterior parts became thin and broad with a depression at the center of the segments and at the same time became paralyzed. The scolex and the anterior part of the worm remained actively motile.

Experiment 5. I. soliwm, test solutions: a. areca nut decoction 30 per cent plus pumpkin seed powder decoction 30 per cent in equal parts, b. pumpkin kernel powder decoction 30 per cent. Four minutes after it was put into solution a the whole worm became completely paralyzed. It was then taken out and put into normal saline to recover. After recovery it was put into solution b. Fifteen minutes later, while the scolex and the immature segments of the anterior part of the worm were still actively motile, the segments of the middle part of the worm became thin and broad with a depression at the center of each segment and these together with the posterior part of the worm became paralyzed.

In summarizing the results of the above experiments, it may be concluded that in a pumpkin seed decoction or in a solution of the extract T. saginata becomes paralyzed only in the middle and posterior parts but not in the scolex and anterior parts. At the same time, the segments of both the middle and posterior parts of the worm become thin and broad with a depression at the center, but that this is more marked in the middle portion of the worm.

In an areca nut decoction, on the other hand, as was pointed out by Feng and his associates(2), the sarne parasite becomes paralyzed completely only in the scolex and the immature segments, but not in the gravid segments.*

Experiments 3 and 4 above show that T. saginata in the mixed solution of the decoctions of areca nut and pumpkin seed becomes paralyzed completely from the scolex to the posterior end.

In regard to T. solium, although there was only one experiment performed, yet the result showed that the pumpkin seed decoction has the

same kind of effect on this tapeworm as on T. saginata but somewhat stronger.

* With regard to the action of areca nut on JT. saginata, we have made several experiments with the crude or the tannin-free decoction of the drug in various concentrations. The results show that the behaviors of the worm in the different concentrations (2-50 per cent) of the decoction are not uniform. However, one thing is certain, and that is the scolex and the immature segments of all the specimens of T. saginata always became paralyzed in all the concentrations of the decoction tested. The degree of paralysis of the gravid segments varied to some extent with different worms. This may serve to explain why areca nut is effective in some cases and not in others in the treatment of T. saginata infection. The present experiments in addition support the conclusion reached by Feng(?) that in a decoction of areca nut the paralyzed segments of the worm become long and slender, a phenomenon quite different from that observed in the decoction of pumpkin seeds,