I am Dr Fernand Lambein, faculty member of the Institute for Plant Biotechnology Outreach (IPBO) in Ghent University (Belgium). The general goal of IPBO is to promote plant biotechnology in developing countries and emerging economies.
As coordinator of the worldwide Cassava Cyanide Disease and Neurolathyrism Network (CCDNN), my specific goal is to prevent the irreversible crippling diseases Konzo (from overconsumption of insufficiently processed cassava, occurring mostly among the poor in Africa) and Neurolathyrism (from overconsumption of grass pea seeds, occurring among the poor in Ethiopia and the Indian Subcontinent) by biotechnological improvement and nutritional enhancement of both cassava (Manihot esculenta) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus).
Besides the occurrence of cyanogenic glycosides in cassava and the occurrence of a neuro-excitatory amino acid in grass pea, both crops are deficient in essential sulfur-containing amino acids. When consumed as a staple during extended periods, this deficiency can jeopardize the defense against oxidative stress in the consumers. Oxidative stress is a common feature in human neurodegenerations including konzo and neurolathyrism. Both crops are tolerant to drought and are the producer of the cheapest starch (cassava roots) or the cheapest protein (grass pea seed) respectively. Grass pea is also the most efficient nitrogen fixing food, feed and forage legume. In moderate saline soil it even produces a higher biomass. Both crops are ideally suited for marginal lands in the face of global climate change.
Cassava is praised for daily feeding more than half a billion people, although one meal of bitter unprocessed cassava roots can be lethal. On the other hand, grass pea is blamed as the cause of neurolathyrism, but this only occurs during drought triggered famines when, by virtue of its drought tolerance, grass pea becomes the survival food and staple food during several months, and neurolathyrism does not affect longevity. Indeed, in drought prone areas of Ethiopia and the Indian Subcontinent, poor farmers consider grass pea as their life-insurance crop. At a recent international conference at the Indian National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad where I gave the keynote lecture, the risk factors for neurolathyrism were identified as poverty, illiteracy, stress and the availability of grass pea as the cheapest food. Balancing the diet with cereals and other foodstuffs richer in the essential sulfur-containing amino acids protects against neurolathyrism and may have health benefits. When grass pea is not the cheapest food available, no new neurolathyrism cases occur in Bangladesh and India.
In contrast to cassava, research on grass pea is greatly neglected and underfunded. A recent paper by two Ethiopian researchers Dejene Girma and Lijalem Korbuon on ‘Genetic improvement of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) in Ethiopia: an unfulfilled promise’ gave rise to an internet debate on genetic improvement of the crop (http://agro.biodiver.se/2012/01/the-future-of-grasspea-breeding-debated/). Because of underfunding, it may take more than five years before GM grass pea is in the pipeline. As grass pea seed was once a royal gift to the pharaoh in Egyptian pyramids, nutritionally enhanced grass pea can become a wonder crop for marginal drought prone lands.
Fernand Lambein,
Institute for Plant Biotechnology Outreach (IPBO)
Ghent University
Ghent
Belgium
e-mail: fernand.lambein (at) UGENT.BE
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