Arecoline

Arecoline is a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonist. Arecoline induces ADP ribosylation of histones and chromatid relaxation in spleen and bone marrow cells. In a study, a controlled trial involving 122 dogs experimentally infected with Echinococcus granulosus was carried out to compare the efficiency of Arecoline and bunamidine hydrochloride. A single treatment with Arecoline at a dose rate of 4 mg/kg or with bunamidine hydrochloride at 50 mg/kg gave a similar degree of efficiency against young worms. At these dose rates, worms were still present in almost half the dogs at autopsy.