Pharmacological Studies on The Anthelmintic Drug Levamisole In Fresh Water Fish

Levamisole hydrochloride is highly acceptable antinematodal drug because of its broad range of activity in large number of hosts(cattle,sheep,pig,horse,chicken,dog,cat and recently fish). It has been effective against nematodes of lungs and gastrointestinThere are many literature concerning the efficiency and side effects of levamisole on gastrointestinal and respiratory nematodes in farm animals but little is known about its effect in fish. Hence the present work was undertaken to study the pharmacologicThe obtained results are summarized as follow !- I- Pharmacological studies :-* Experiments on isolated tissue preparations: * Effects on intestinal smooth muscles: Our results revealed that levamisole HCI produced a dose -dependent stimulatory effect. A dose of 5 ugjml produced a slight stimulatory effect on the intestinal motility of the three different parts of catfish small intestine. whereas, a highconcentration (40 ugjml) elicited a marked stimulation. Theseappear to be most probably due to stimulation of both muscarinic .