Cuurare Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment was to show the effect of Curare, a neuromuscular blocking agent, on the tension generated by the gastrocnemius muscle of a dissected frog when stimulated through the sciatic nerve.

The gastrocnemius muscle is a skeletal muscle found in the lower limb. Skeletal muscle fibres are all supplied with a nerve that controls the fibre’s activity. To understand the process of muscle contraction, it is first necessary to understand the muscle structure itself.
Muscles as we see them are made up of bundles of muscle fibres, whilst the fibres themselves contain many myofibrils that are the length of the muscle cell, all surrounded by a thin collagen layer. Myofibrils consist of contractile units called Sarcomeres that