New Grasspeas Lessen Risk of Paralysis.

An international team of researchers has developed several new, less toxic strains of the hardy grasspea plant. This is good news for nations that regularly experience drought and crop failure: grasspea, which can survive in areas that receive as little as eight inches of rainfall per year, feeds much of the world's poor when other crops fail, but the plant contains neurotoxins that can cause permanent paralysis in the leg muscles of people who eat it. At least 100,000 people in developing counties who have endured drought and crop failure are believed to suffer paralysis caused by the plant's neurotoxins.

"The objective of our breeding program was to lower the toxins in the plant to a level safe for human consumption without losing [its] valuable characteristics," says Ali Abd, El-Moneim, a scientist with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria, the agricultural research institute that developed the new strains. El-Moneim says the new strains were created by crossing Middle Eastern varieties, which have naturally lower toxin levels, with African and Asian varieties, which are seven times as toxic. Produced using a technique called somoclonal variation, the hybrids contain just enough toxins to maintain drought tolerance without threatening human health. News of the new strains was disseminated by Future Harvest, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on environmental research and food output for the world's poor.

Grasspea is a legume and is commonly grown in Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. It is grown on 3.7 million acres worldwide, largely as a forage crop. Harmless to livestock, it is relatively safe for humans if eaten in small amounts. According to Future Harvest, it takes a steady diet of grasspea over a three-month period to cause paralysis.

Grasspea is rich in protein and the amino acid lysine. Its toxins are closely related to its high tolerance to drought as well as its ability to survive water-logged conditions. Grasspea's neurotoxins actually affect more than just the leg muscles. "The neurotoxins carry a broad impact on the central nervous system, and it is most often seen in the legs because of load-bearing issues," says John Dodds, assistant director general of ICARDA. Eating grasspea can also cause retardation and death in young children.

"Poor people know the effects of eating grasspea but live under such desperate conditions that they have no other option but to eat it," says Adel El-Beltagy, director general for ICARDA. "We wanted to make this option of last resort a safe one."

According to El-Moneim, the next step will be to distribute the low-toxin lines to the countries most in need, and encourage scientists to select locally adapted varieties. In a 16 June 2000 press release issued by Future Harvest, he stated, "We now have a large, stable gene pool from which national agricultural research programs can select plants suited to local conditions."