A STUDY OF THE ANTHELMINTIC ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF PLEUROTUS ERYNGII ON SYPHACIA OBVELATA AND HYMENOLEPIS NANA

Pleurotus eryngii is a mushroom growing in the Bakhtiari province of Iran and is known as a mountain fungus. The fresh fungus is used as a food, and when dried its powder has been used as an anthelmintic drug. We decided to study the anthelmintic activity of P. eryngii on Hymenolepis nana (cestode) and Syphacia obvelata (nematode), using experimental animals. Water extract of P. eryngii was prepared by the maceration method. White mice (Suri) laboratory bred were infected with H. nana worms. Four concentrations of aqueous extract of the fungus (484.5,800,900 and 1500 mg fungus/ml) were fed three times to the infected mice. The anthelmintic effects of the aqueous extract of the fungus on S. obvelata were also studied in the infected animals using the same procedure. The results of the study indicated that the highest anthelmintic effects of the fungus on H. nana and S. obvelata were 89% and 95%, respectively