ABSTRACT
The antischistosomal activity of praziquantel [PZQ], its alkaline hydrolysis product [HP] and its sun decomposed [SD] products was investigated in S. Mansoni experimentally infected mice. The evaluation depended on the degree of the clinicopathological changes. The obtained results revealed that, PZQ, HP and SD induced a partial suppression of worm fecundity as judged by the significant reduction in eggs per gram of feces in comparison with the infected untreated control. The effect on tissue egg deposition in the treated groups was comparable with the infection of the untreated control. Worm recovery showed a great reduction in the number of worms for SD [47.6%] and HP [28.6%] compared with PZQ [16.6%] treated groups. So, the former two compounds have the superior antischistosomal activities. Glutamate pyruvate transaminase [GPT] and glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase [GOT] concentrations were measured. The GOT values for all treated groups were significantly higher than those for the healthy control group. The SD group enzyme concentration was even higher than the infected untreated control. The GPT values of all groups were greater than the uninfected control and the difference was significant for the infected untreated, PZQ and the SD treated groups