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28 ASSOCIATION OF PACIF IC COAST GEOG RAPHERS

can be and often is an impoverishment of life, a progressive lossof the qualities that we identify with humanness and a progressiveweakening of mental and phy sical sanity."16

For all of these reasons I find myself in complete disagreementwith Jackson when he says, in justification of pragmatic, eco-nomically oriented man, that with respect to the environment, "whatthe spectator wants or does not want [in the way or aesthetics] i s ofsmall account,"17 for, unlike Jackson, I believe that the most neces-sary ingredient for the creation of a desirable future environmentis a vision of what we think that environment ought to be.

16 R. Dubos, "C. F. Letter," (Conservation Fo undation, W ashington, D.C.,

Feb . 24 ,1969) , p . 11 .17

J. B. Jackson, "Notes and Comments," Landscape, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1963-64) , p . 2 .

The Grass Pea: Distribution,

Diet, and Disease

ROBERT D. MITCHELL9

O N E OF THE MORE INTRIGUING aspects of man's domestication and useof plants is the assimilation of certain toxin-producing plants into

his agricultural and dietary patterns. Most naturally toxic or unpal-atable plants which have become widely accepted food species, suchas cassava and certain species of yams and mustards, have been somodified by man that any unpleasant elements have been removedor rendered inoperative prior to consumption. Others have beenonly slightly modified or are essentially unchanged. The purposeof this paper is to examine the role played by a relatively little knowntoxic plant, grass pea or chickling vetch (Lathijrus sativus), in th eagricultural and food patterns of the Old World. An annual legu-minous plant similar in appearance to the common field pea, andprobably native to southwest Asia, grass pea is a minor plant inman's culinary arsenal. It has been widely used as a fodder crop. InIndia and West Pakistan it attains the status of a minor food cropunder the commercial name of khesari. Both of these countries aiealso subject to an endemic paralytic disease known as lathyrism,w hich has long been attributed to the grass pea.

ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION

Members of the genus Lathyrus occur on all continents exceptAustralasia and Antarctica. The Mediterranean zone of Europe,

* Dr. Mitchell was an Assistant Professor of Geography at San Fernan doValley State College when a paper on which this article is based was read atth e 32nd annual m eeting of the Association. He is now on the faculty of theDepartment of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland20742. The author wishes to thank Frederick J. Simoons for originally intro-ducing him to the mysteries of grass pea, and Wallace St. Clair for drawing thefinal illustrations.

29



3 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOG RAPH ERS YEARBOOK VO L UM E 33 1971 31

north Africa, and southwest Asia has the greatest profession of in-dividual species, seventy-six. This zone holds the key to the originsand sub sequent diffusion of many species of th e genus. 1

Lathyrus sativus is an Old World species which has also beenused as an experimental forage crop in the New World. Despitenumerous listings of the areas where this species is found, onlyMuratova has attempted to map its distribution.2 My research in-dicates a wider distribution for the plant than she was aware of,particularly in southern Asia and Africa (Figure 1). As a cultivatedcrop and as a naturalized wee d, grass pea occurs from th e Azores andCanary Islands eastward to the lower central Brahmaputra Valley inAssam. It has been identified as a forage plant or as a weed as farnorth as the outskirts of Paris and southern Germany. 3 In the SovietUnion it seems to be confined to the Ukraine, the Caucasus, andTurkestan. In Africa it grows along the n orth coast, in the Nile Valley,and in limited areas in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Africa. Theadaptability of th e species to a wide variety of physical conditions isevident in its vertical distribution. In the de lta plains of East P akistanit is cultivated at a few feet abo ve sea level, and it ha s been observedabove 9,000 feet in southeastern Kashmir.4

1 Harold A. Senn, "Experimental Data for a Revision of the Genus Lathy-

rus," American Journal of Botany, Vol. 25 (1938), pp. 68-69. For a detaileddiscussion of the botanical characteristics of grass pea, see Gabrielle H. C.Howard and K.S.A.R. Khan, 'The Indian Types of Lathyrus Sativus L.,"Memoirs of the Departm ent o f Agriculture in India, Botanical Series, VoL 15,No . 2 (1928), pp. 47-77.

2 V. S. Muratova, "Areas of the geographical distribution of the most im-

portant representatives of the genus Lathyrus L. which are of agriculturalvalue" (In Russian with English summary), Bulletin of Applied Botany, Ge-netics and Plant-Breeding, V ol. 16 ( 1926 ), p. 95.

3

More than one hundred separate sources were consulted in reconstructingthe plant's distribution. For the limits mentioned, see W. Trelease, BotanicalObservations on the Azores, St. Louis, 1897, p. 109; H. Knoche, Die KanarischeInseln (Strassburg, 19 23), pp. 175 and 226; U. N . Kanjila , P. C. Kanjilal,and A. Das, Flora of Assam, Vol. 2, Calcutta, 1938, p. 24; E. Cosson and G.de Saint-Pierre, Flore des Environs de Paris, Paris, 18 61, p. 182 ; and GustavHegi , illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa, V ol. 4 (Mu nich, 192 4), pp. 1604-1606.

* Abdul Alim, "Fodder Plant Resources of E ast P akistan," AgriculturePakistan, Vol. 10 (1 959 ), pp. 351-357, and R. R. Stewart, 'T he F lora of Ladak,Western Tibet," Contributions from the Department of Botany, Columbia Uni-verstíy, No. 281,1916-1 7, p. 637.

INDIAN OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

1500I

MILES

Figure 1. Maximum distribution of the grass pea as a food and fodder crop.(Adapted from V. S. Muratova)

There is sufficient archaeological evidence to suggest that thegrass pea is a relatively old cultivated plant closely associated withth e origins and diffusion of Old World agriculture. The earliest refer-ence is for the western foothills of the Zagros Mountains of westernIran. At the Deh Luran excavation site, grass peas were found inassociation w ith wh eat, barley , lentils, and flax in a level which da tedbetween 4,000 and 5,200 B.C.5 The plant was found in the pyramid

8 Frank H ole, K. Flannery, an d J. Neely, "Early Agriculture and Animal

Husbandry in Deh Luran, Iran," Current Anthropology, Vol. 6 (1965 ), pp. 105-1 0 6 .



32 ASSOCIATION OF PAC IFIC COAST GEOGR APHERS YEARBOOK • V O L U M E 33 1971 33

complexes of the lower Nile Valley, dated between 2,300 and2,700 B. C, and at the excavations at Navdatoli on the northwesternDeccan in India, where it was eaten or cultivated bet ween 1,500 and2,000 B . C.6 There appears to be no Hebrew name for the plant, butit does occur in ancient Sanskrit under the name triputa meaning"threefold" or "angular," possibly referring to the flowers or theseeds.7 A small-seeded variety was found at Aggtelek, a late Neolithicsite in Hungary, and the plant was used as a fodder crop in ancientGreece and Rome.

8

Opinions vary widely on the possible hearth area. Linnaeus be-lieved it to be native to southern Europe, de Candolle vaguely sug-

gested the region from the Caucasus to the north of India, andVavilov originally included it in his Afghanistan-northwest Indiaand Ethiopia centers. However, the most recen t archaeological evi-dence points to southwest Asia and particularly to the western foot-hill steppe zone of the Zagros Mountains as the probable originof the plant as a crop collected and eventually cultivated by man(Figure 2).e This region wh ich today receives an average annualprecipitation of 10 to 15 inches with a distinct w inter maximum wasprobably much wetter during the early Neolithic period some 10,000to 11,000 years ago.10

The early association of Lathyrus sativus with the wild ancestorsof wheat and barley would seem to be an additional clue to thedomestication of the plant. One of the most striking features aboutthe development of Old World seed agriculture is the close relation-ship between grain crops and legumes. Many of the latter seem

G Oakes Ames, Economic Annuals and Human Cultures, Cambridge, Mass.,

1939, pp. 51-52, and Robert J. Braidwood and G. R. Willey (e ds.) , Course s

Toward Urban Life (Chicago, 1962), p. 7 5.7 Suáruta, Sushruta Samhita, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies, Vol. 30 (Var-

anasi, India, 1963), p. 474.8 F. Pax, Grundzüge der Pflanzenverbreitung in den Karpathen, Leipzig,

1898, 240, and H. O. Lenz, Botanik der Alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha1859), pp. 729-730.

9 Hole, Flannery, and Neely, op. cit., pp. 105-106. See also Rob ert J. Braid-wood, "Near Eastern Prehistory," Science, Vol. 127 (1958) , p. 1426.

10 Karl W. Butzer, Environment and Archaeology, Chicago, 1964, pp.425-426, and H. E. Wright, "Natural Environment of Early Food ProductionNorth of M esopotamia," Science, Vol. 161 (1968), pp . 334-339.

(

\

\

t

a

y

/ • >

m

y

^y—>

. /J /

/ A.

T/ /U

0

I

/

/'

/

r—r Maximum distribution

a Original

^ * center

„ i DiffusionB.C.

_. > Diffusion0 1800 A.D.

_ . .^ Diffusionsinoe 1800

15001

MILES

Figu re 2. Origins and diffusion of the grass pea.

to have been brought into cultivation as secondary domesticants,i.e., they were originally found as weeds in cultivated wh eat or barleyfields. On the other hand, in some areas of southwest Asia it is pos-sible that legumes were primary domesticants, having been selectedand brought in to cultivation as forage plants by groups in the processof domesticating herd animals.

Assuming that the origin of the plant as a cultivated crop wasin the Zagros foothills, it would have been easier for it to spreadwest to the Mediterranean zone with its winter rains t han to move



ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERSYEARBOOK VOLUME 33 1971 35

east to northern India or south to the Ethiopian plateau with then-cool, dry winters. Diffusion from the hearth area would have in-volved further selection and hybridization to adapt it to differingclimatic regimes. It seems doubtful that grass pea was native toEthiopia. It is cultivated widely throughout the Ethiopian plateaubetween 5,000 and 7,500 feet, but it has not diffused to other partsof the East African highlands.

11 More likely, the plant was brought

with wheat and barely from southwest Asia via the Nile Valley orthe Red Sea.12

The chronology and diffusion patterns of the grass pea are dif-ficult to trace because of the etymological confusion surrounding its

identification. There are only slight differences between the majorgenera of the Leguminosae. Common field pea (Pisum arvense),chick pea (Cicer arietinum), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), andcommon vetch or tare (Vicia sativa) are familiar members of thefamily. Yet the terms pea, vetch, and tare are broad and ill-defined,and the linguistic background to their taxonomy is equally confusing.

Table 1 is a partial list of colloquial names that have been usedfor grass pea. Some of these provide clues to the plant's diffusion.The large number of names in India, the area of its greatest signifi-

Table 1. SELECTED COLLOQUIAL NAMES FOR THE CRASS PEA

Country Name Country Name

IndiaKashmirPunjabUttar PradeshSindGujaratMadhya PradeshBombay

Khesari (commercial)GarashMattar, matraLatri, teoraMattarBajri, watanaLalch, teora, matraLang

Spain

PortugalBritain

EthiopiaTanzaniaSouth Africa

Chícharo, garbanzojudía

Chicharos-communsGrass pea, chickling

vetch, Spanish lentilGuaya, sebbereBajriWatana

11 Frederick J. Simoons, Northwest Ethiopia: Peoples and Economy (Madi-

son, Wisconsin, 1960), p. 110; Eike Haberland, Galla Süd-Äthiopiens (Stutt-gart, 1963), p. 5 33; A. V. Bogdan, Herbage Plants at the Grassland ResearchStation, Kitale, Kenya, East African Agricultural Journal, Vol. 20 (1955), p.162; and J. D. Tothill (ed.), Agriculture in Uganda (London, 1940 ), p. 479.

12 Compare I. H. Burkhill, Habit s of Man and t he Origins of the Culti-

vated Plants of the Old World, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London,Vol. 164 (1951-52), 16-17, and 22, and David R. Harris, New Light on PlantDomestication and the Origins of Agriculture: A Review, Geographical Review,Vol. 57 (19 67), pp . 97-100.

canee, is not surprising. The use of Gujrati names in Tanzania andSouth Africa indicates the origin of the plant's use among the recentIndian populations of these two countries (Figure 2 ). The varietyof interpretations found in the Iberian Peninsula illustrates thelinguistic confusion and some of the frustrations associated with thediffusion of grass pea. In Portuguese the word chícharos has beenused very loosely, not only for grass pea but also for lddney bean(Phaseolus vulgaris), chick pea (Cicer arietinum), and blue or pur-ple vetch (Vicia atropurpúrea).13 Chícharo is the general Spanishname for the plant, but the word is more commonly employed forgarden pea (Pisum. sativum). Historically, the term chícharo has

been used synonymously in Spain with judía ( kidney bean ) whichthrough the Christian-Moor linguistic complex became associatedwith garbanzo.

1* And the garbanzo bean (really the chick pea )

has become a common American salad ingredient.It has been widely assumed by European botanists, based on

the literature of the great sixteenth-century herbalists, that the Alpsprovided a distinct barrier to the northward diffusion of grass peafrom the Mediterranean and that it did not reach central and north-western Europe before the sixteenth century. In view of the manycultural connections between northern and southern Europe datingbac k at least to the Roman conquests, this seems doubtful. The plantcould have reached north of the Alps via the Danube Valley orsouthern France or by sea long before the sixteenth century. Al-though concrete evidence is lacking, there is no reason why it couldnot have been carried north by the Romans prior to the fifth century.Maritime connections also may have allowed the seeds to reachnorthern Europe from the Mediterranean.15

AGRICULTURAL AND DIETARY SIGNIFICANCE

Throughout the areas of its distribution, grass pea has been usedprincipally as fodder for livestock. In periods of famine or poor

13 M. R. D'Oliveira Feijáo, Elucidario Fitológico, Vol. 1 (Lisbon, 1960), p.

2 4 2 . Chícharo is derive d from the vulgar Latin, Ciceru, meaning vetchling.14

See Juan Coraminas, Diccionario Crítico Etimológico de la LenguaCastellana, four vols, (especially vols. 1 and 2) (Madrid, 1954).

15 John Parkinson, The Theater of fiantes (London, 1640), pp. 1064-

1 0 6 6 .



36 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEO GRAPHE RS YEARBOOK VOLUME 33 1971 37

ble 2. NUTRITIVE VALUE OF SELECTED FOODSTUFFS

Content per 100 grams

Khesari Rice, raw Whole Bengal Drieddhal milled wheat gram peas

Composition dhal

grams grams grams grams grams

Moisture 10.0 13.7 12.8 9.9 16.0Protein 28.2 6.8 11.8 20.8 19.7Fat 0.6 0.5 1.5 5.6 1.1Mineral 2.3 0.6 1.5 2.7 2.2Fiber 2.3 0.2 1.2 1.2 4.5Other carbohydrates 56.6 78.2 71.2 59.8 56.5

Selected nutrientsCalcium High Low Medium Medium HighMagnesium Medium Low High High HighOxalic acid Very high Low Low Low LowPhosphorus Low Medium High Medium MediumIron Medium Medium Medium Medium High

harvests, it has been eaten by the poorer classes in the Mediterraneanan d the Middle East, the seeds being ground into flour or meal.Although still used as a fodder crop outside of South Asia, especiallyin the Mediterranean zone and in eastern Africa, its importance hasgradually diminished during the last three decades.

The major areas of grass pea cultivation and use today are inIndia and Pakistan. In East Pakistan it remains an important foddercrop; the leaves especially are fed to cattle. In India and West Pakis-ta n it attains additional significance as a human food (T able 2) .Compared with the numerous varieties of gram (chick pea), whichcomprise about 40 percent of the total annu al acreage un der pulsesin India, the grass pea comprises only 9 to 10 percent. It is confined

largely to northern and central India, the main areas of pulse pro-duction and consumption, and to the Indus Valley. Untü recentlygrass pea was the leading leguminous crop in the state of Bihar,occupying one-third of the total pulse acreage, and in West Bengaland Madhya Pradesh it took up more than one-fifth of the acreageunder pulses.16 During the mid-1950's its cultivated ac reage in Indiawas approximately 1.8 million acres.

10 Robert O. Whyte, Th e Grassland and Fodder Resources o f India, (NewDelhi, 1957), p . 378.

Grass pea is sown in October or November and grows duringthe cool season. It does best in loamy or clayey soils and shows aremarkable tolerance of both dry and waterlogged soil conditions.It has been a popular crop with the Indian farmer, partly becauseit requires very little land preparation before sowing. At most theland may be ploughed twice or three times. Seeds aie usually broa d-cast at rates of 30 to 35 pounds per acre. Once in the ground, thecrop receives little or no attention. There is no after-tillage or hand-weeding. Moreover, the plant's disease susceptibility is low, and inareas where the pea-weevil is present its cultivation is preferred tothat of the common field pea.

The adaptability of the plant has been another major reasonfor its widespread use in the past. In wheat-growing areas of theupper Ganges and Indus valleys, it is generally sown with wheat,barley, and lentils. In paddy rice areas of the lower Ganges and thenortheastern peninsula, it is sown just before or just after the riceharvest. Around Calcutta in the jute-growing areas it has recentlybeen used in experiments with double-crop jute and rice as a legu-minous addition.17

Harvesting occurs in March. The plants aie generally cut closeto the ground before they are fully ripe. They are moved to thethreshing floor and stacked for a week until dry, after which theyare threshed eith er with sticks or by bullocks and then clean ed. Grassp e a is seldom a uniform crop when harvested. It is usually contami-nated with a variety of weeds. Yields vary widely from district todistrict, usually ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of fodder peracre. The leaves, stalks, and tough-skinned seeds are fed to cattle.The plant is sometimes ploughed under as a nitrogenous crop inpaddy fields, but the practice is not very widespread.

17 C. P . Dutt and B. M. Pugh, Farm Science and Crop Production in India,

Par t 2, Allahabad, 1947, 212; L . S. S. Kumar, et al., Agriculture in India, Vol. 2(Bombay, 1963), pp. 49-50; M. I. Siddiqui, "Land Utilisation in Bholahat,

Jadunagar, and Gilhabari: A Study in Rural Landuse," Oriental Geographer,Vol. 8 (1964), p. 54; R. L. and K. N. Singh, "Eastern Uttar Pradesh," in R. L.Singh (ed.) , India: Regional Studies (Calcutta, 1968), p. 88 ; and Whyte, op.cit., pp. 294-299.



38 ASSOCIATION O F PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS YEARBOOK VOLUME 33 1971 39

Grass pea or khesari is one of the cheapest, least labor-con-suming, and most resistant of the Indian pulses. Because of long-accustomed use b y local farmers, its retention as a food cro p in manyareas is undoubtedly due to familiarity and cultural preference par-ticularly in those areas where lathyrism has been prominent. Theplants nutritive value compares favorably with some of the betterknown Indian foodstuffs (Tab le 2 ). It ha s a relatively high proteincontent and caloric value, but it is deficient in fat a nd vitamins Aand C. It also shows an inordinately high concentration of oxalicacid, which is one of the factors contributing to lathyrism.

Grass pea is used in food preparations i n a variety of ways. In

its most common form it is eaten as khesari dhal (dal). The seeds,with their outer skins removed, are cooked with other legumes toform a kind of split-pea dish which is served with bread . Dhal i s alsoused as a base for a soup or gruel, mah era, w hich is composed ofdhal, water or buttermilk, and spices. Seeds are also used to make abread flour. They are parched before being crushed and ground,then the skins are separated and discarded—a loss of 25 percent inweight. The flour is baked into bread cakes, chappatis, and eatenwith cooked vegetables or chutney.

18 Among Indians in Tanzania

and South Africa th e seeds are also roasted an d ea ten like peanuts.19

LATHYRISM

Many of the crippled beggars in cities of northern India areformer rural dwellers suffering from the chronic cerebro-spinaldisease of the nervous system known as lathyrism. The main featureof the disease i s a degree of mo tor paralysis in the low er limbs. Thedevelopment of a characteristic gait has been noted, although few

cases have been observed completely from the onset of the disease.Th e first symptom s are usua lly cram ps an d stiffness in th e calf

18 For some descriptions of diet, see Sir George Watt, Th e Commercial

Products of India (London, 1908), p . 705; C. V. Wiser, "The Foods of a HinduVillage of North India," Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 4 (1955),pp. 333-334; and T. C. McCombie Young, "A Field Study of Lathyrism,"Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 15 (1927-28) , p . 458 .

19 J. M. Watt and M. G. Breyer-Brandwijk, Th e Medical an d Poisonous

Plants of Southern an d Eastern Africa, Edinburgh, 1962, p. 615, and Reportby British Colonial Office on Tanganyika Territory for 1927 (London, 1928),p. 3 1 .

muscles, a slight bending of the knee, and some difficulty in running.Within two to three weeks a scissor-like gait develops in which theheels seldom touch the ground; most of the weight is placed on theball of the foot. In more serious cases, victims are forced to use walk-ing sticks. In most advanced stages, the entire lower limbs becomecompletely paralyzed, and victims can only crawl in a sitting posi-tion.

20 There is rarely any sensory paralysis of the legs; mental

faculties, speech, and cranial nerves are never involved; and signsof vitamin deficiency are not common. Indeed, most of the victimswho were examined did not seem to have been badly nourishedat all.

Although the word "lathyrism" was first used in the 1870's,the disease dates back at least to Hippocrates in the fourth centuryB. C. Early India n medical writings contain references to a diseasecalled "kalaya khanji" with symptoms closely resembling if notcompletely identical with those produced by khesari. 21 With theadoption of grass pea as a fodder crop in northern Europe, writtenreports of lathyrism among livestock, especially horses, began toturn up from the seventeenth century on. On occasion, local au-thorities prohibited the use of various species of Lathyrus includingL. sativus, not only for horse feed but also as ingredients in bread.During the nineteenth century, reports of lathyrism in man and ani-mals increased in Europe and the Middle East. In 1820 the ParisVeterinary School advised French farmers not to feed grass pea tohorses for fear of paralysis and death. In a celebrated court case inEngland in 1894, the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Companycharged an importing company with selling them Indian peas or"mutters" (grass peas from Punjab and Sind). One hundred and

20 The best general discussions of the nature an d history of the disease a re

Ralph Stockman, "Lathyrism," Edinburgh Medical Journal, Vol. 19 (1917),pp. 277-296; R. Ghoshal, "Lathyrism," Calcutta Medical Journal, Vol. 51(1954), p p . 191-204; and D. N. Sharma, "Lathyrism: The Old and New Con-cepts," Journal of the Indian Medical Association, Vol. 36 (1961), p p . 299-304.Photographs illustrating various stages of the disease ar e contained in T. C.McCombie Young, "A Field Study of Lathyrism," Indian Journal of MedicalResearch, Vol. 15 (1927-28), plates 43-46; and D. M Roy, "A Note on FieldInvestigation of an Outbreak of Lathyrism in Madhya Pradesh in 1945," IndianMedical Gazette, Vol. 86 (1951), plate XVI.

21 Ghoshal, op. cit., p . 191, a nd Sharma, o p. cit., p. 299.



4 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPH ERS YEARBOOK V O L U M E 3 3 1971 41

twenty-seven horses were said to have become ill as a result andsome died.22 During the same century, lathyrism in man was reportedin Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, North Africa, Ethiopia,and Iran. In the twentieth century, reports were received of isolatedinstances of human lathyrism in Spain, the Soviet Union, and Syria,as well as from In dia and Pakistan.

The first detailed written account of the disease in South Asiadates from the 1830's in the central provinces of India. Since thattime, frequent outbreaks of human lathyrism have occurred in theIndus Valley, Kashmir, and at least ten of the central and northernprovinces of India (Figure 3). The area of endemic lathyrism seems

to be in the central Ganges Valley areas of Uttar Pradesh andnorthern Bihar and in the plateau province of Madhya Pradesh."Although grass pea is also cultivated in Assam and Maharashtraprovinces, few human cases of the disease have been reported fromthese areas, mainly because the pulse is seldom eaten. The virtualabsence of reports from Orissa has been attributed to heavy de-pendence upon rice as the staple food and the relative unimportanceof grass pea. In the adjacent rice province of West Bengal, wherereports of lathyrism had also been rare, a serious outbreak of thedisease occurred in 1959-60. Eighty-five cases were reported amongBengalese cultivators from twenty-two villages where lathyrism hadhitherto been unknown.24 Local cultivators had grown rice, but theyhad recently begun to incorporate jute into their crop patterns aswell which, according to them, caused a reduction in rice yields.Thus, to compensate for the declining amounts of available rice,they had reverted to the cultivation of grass pea because it was soeasy to cultivate and produced higher yields than other familiar

pulses.25

^ S h a r m a , op. cit., p . 3 0 0 .23

H . S to t t , "D is t r ibu t ion of L a t h y r i s m in U n i t e d P r o v i n c e s a n d i t s Caíase

. . .," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol . 18 ( 1 9 3 0 ) , p p . 5 1 - 5 5 .24

T . K . S a h a e t a l . , " L a t h y r i s m in a ru ra l a r ea of W e s t B e n g a l , " Bulletin

of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Vol. 8 (1960), pp. 98-99; andR. N. Chaudhuri et al., "Lathvrism: further observations," ibid., Vol. 11 (1963),pp. 89-91.

25 Cases of a disease similar to lathyrism but with no evidence of Lathyrus

consumption have been reported in Madras province. See R. L. H. Minchin,"Primary Lateral Sclerosis of South India: Lathyrism without Lathyrus,"British Medical Journal, Vol. 1 for 1940, pp. 253-255.

WESTPAKISTAN

Other areas ofcult ivated khesari

MILES

EASTPAKISTAN

KashmirPunjabRajasthanGujaratMaharashtraMysore

7. Uttar Prade sh8. Madhya Prade sh9. Orissa

10 . Bihar11 . West Bengal12 . Assam

Figure 3. Lathyrism in South Asia.(Compiled from several sources)

Most field researchers who have studied human lathyrism haveattributed it to some form of poisoning, to amino acid and vitamindeficiencies, or to a combination of both. The increasing number ofmedical reports of lathyrism during the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries led to many experiments on animals to study thecauses of the disease in more detail, but the etiology of humanlathyrism was made m ore complicated by conflicting results obtainedfrom inducing the disease in animals by means of various combina-tions of pulses. One of th e major difficulties was the fact that khesaridha l itself contains a variety of other pulses in addition to grass pea.Field researchers have identified three species of Lathyrus commonin khesari dhal which seem to produce symptoms of lathyrism inm a n - L . sativus, flat-podded vetch (L. cicero), and Spanish vetch-



42ASSOCIAT ION OF PACIFIC COAST G E OGRAPHE RS

ling (L. clymenum).26

When these species were fed experimentallyto a wide selection of animals, they usually proved to be nontoxic.On th e other hand , species of Lathyrus which were not poisonous toman, particularly sweet pea (L. odoratus), perennial sweet pea(L. latifolius), and flat pea (L. sylvestris) did produce some symp-toms in animals which broadly resembled human lathyrism.27

As a result of these experiments, two different forms of thedisease have become evident. Human lathyrism, or neurolathyrism,involves damage to the cerebro-spinal fluid and to the centralnervous system, causing paralysis. Grass pea is intimately associatedwith this form. Osteolathyrism, produced in animal experiments,involves damage mainly to the bone and connective tissue, causing

stunted growth, asphyxiation, and even death. Grass pea is not amajor factor in the production of this type of lathyrism. 28

About 1960 there was a major breakthrough—identification ofthe actual toxic factors in grass pea. It w as known that some speciesof Lathyrus, including sativus, had high amino acid potential, butthe relationship between this factor and other chemical substancesin these species was unclear. Studies with chickens injected withalcoholic extracts of grass pea indicated that there might be a posi-tive connection between one of these amino acids and the high con-tent of oxalic acid in the seeds of the plant. 29 This hypothesis hasindeed proved correct, and a neurotoxic compound which seems tobe responsible for human lathyrism has been identified as BOAA(/?-N-OxaIyIaminoaIanine). However, since only slight structuralmodifications in the enzymic constituents of different varieties of

28 Irvine E. Liener, "Lathyrogens," Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant

Breeding, Vol. 27 (1967), pp. 34-35. For a long time a weed found in grasspea fields, aleta (Vicia sativa), was thought to be the toxic factor. See Howard

and Khan, op. cit., p. 53.27 The major exception to this statement is t h e horse which ha s proven

susceptible to th e to xic factors in grass pea throug h paralysis and asphyxiation.The animals which have been most frequently involved in experiments are therat, chicken, duck, frog, and pig.

28 H. Selye, "Lathyrism," Review of Canadian Biology, Vol. 1 6 (1957), p. 3.

20 Indian Cou ncil of Medical Research, Annual Report 1962-1963 , p . 3 9 .

Fo r a n opinion clai ming a nontoxic character fo r grass pea, see M. S . Sastryet al., "Studies o n Lathyrus Sativus: Non-Toxic Character of Lathyrus SativusSeeds and Their Nutritive Value," Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol. 5 1(1963), pp. 468-475.

YEARBOOK V O L U M E 3 3 1971 43

grass pea produce substantially different physiological effects in manand animals, medical researchers have probed further into thepoisonous factors involved. At least two oth er toxic substances h avebeen isolated, although neither their structural features nor theirprecise neurotoxic actions hav e yet been identified.

30

Although no statistics are available on individuals affected bylathyrism, the number is probably about five million. Detailed fieldstudies in India from the late 1920's until the most recent outbreaksin Madhya Pradesh in 1966-67 revealed some interesting demo-graphic and cultural aspects of the disease. 31 The ages of victimsranged from four to sixty-five years, with the greatest incidence be-

tween ten and thirty. Young males are most susceptible; females areonly occasionally affected. T he suggestion that m en eat more khesaribecause they work longer and harder in the fields seems untenablein view of reports th at in many affected areas in northern Ind iawomen seem to work equally as hard in agricultural pursuits.

Most victims are small cultivators and landless laborers—indi-viduals from the poorest strata of rural society. This is mainly be-cause grass pea is inexpensive and can be easily cultivated. In north-ern India the lugwa system of employment, a type of share-croppingin which laborers are often paid in seed or other produce rather tha nin money, has helped to perpetuate the use of the plant in the dietof laboring families. Many victims examined in the area of endemiclathyrism had eaten a monotonous die t, composed largely of khesaridhal and buttermilk, twice a day for as long as three months priorto the onset of the disease.

The grass pea crop is generally consumed within three to fourmonths after harvesting, and cases of lathyrism occur most fre-

quently during the summer rainy season in July and August. Thereis usually at least a month's gap between the commencement ofkhesari consumption and t he onset of the disease. During this period

30 V. Nagar ajan e t al., "Tox ic Factors in Lathyrus sativus," Indian Journal

of Medical Research, Vol. 5 3 (1965), pp. 269-272; V. Nagarajan and C. Gopa-lan, "Variation in the Neurotoxin /?-(N)-Oxal ylaminoaknine Conten t in Lathy-rus sativus samples from Madhya Pradesh," ibid., Vol. 5 6 (1968), pp. 96-98;and Liener, op. cit., pp. 35-39.

31 F or a summary of some o f these studies see the India n Council of Medi-

cal Research, Annual Reports (1961-68), Hyderabad and New Delhi.



44 ASSOCIATION O F PACIFIC COAST GE OGRAPHERS

the body becomes sensitized to the toxic substances in khesari.32

Lathyrism is most widespread among lower-caste Hindus. Amongnon-Hindu tribal groups and poorer Moslems, meat products forma much more substantial part of protein consumption that khesari.

33

Many local folk-beliefs are held about the causes of the disease.In some affected areas, lathyrism has long been attributed by thenatives to the consumption of khesari. For example, in the Gilgitarea of Kashmir, local people have insisted that lathyrism was in-curable when acquired from crops grown in virgin and unfertilizedsoil. The plant was supposed to lose its toxic qualities after a fewyears of cult ivation in this kind of soil.3*

Roy's field investigations in Madhya Pradesh during the early

1940's uncovered several interesting myths. Local farmers believedthat the outer shell was poisonous and if this was removed the khe-sari would be harmless. Investigations have shown, however, thatpeople who ate shelled seeds have been affected. Boiling rather thanshelling was recommended to remove the suspected toxicity.

35 An -

other widespread belief in northern India has been the varyingtoxicity of grass pea seeds under different forms of soil preparationand cultivation. Reports from Roy and others have indicated casesof a small-seeded, unmottled khesari, known as lakhori, sown inrice fields and believed to yield a harmless seed, and a larger seeded,mottled variety, known as lakh, grown in nearby drier wheat fieldsand regarded as being a dangerous crop.

36 Recent research on these

two varieties in Madhya Pradesh has revealed a wide variation intoxic content from area to area, with the higher toxin seeds tendingto come from the predominantly wheat zone. On the basis of these

22 G h o s h a l , op. cit., p . 1 9 5 , a n d C h a u d h u r i , op. cit., p p . 9 0 - 9 1 .

33 S ee C h a u d h u r i , op. cit., p p . 8 9 - 9 1 ; S a h a , op. cit., p p . 9 8 - 9 9 ; S t o t t , op .

c i t . p p . 5 1 - 5 5 ; Y o u n g , op. cit., p p . 4 5 3 - 4 8 0 ; S . B . L a i , L a t h y r i s m i n B i h a r ,I n d i a n M e d i c a l G a z e t te V o l . 8 4 ( 1 9 4 9 ) , p p . 4 6 8 - 4 7 2 ; a n d S . R. A. S h a h , " AN o t e o n s o m e C a s e s of L a t h y r i s m in a P u n j a b V i l l a g e , ibid., V o l . 7 4 ( 1 9 3 9 ) ,p p . 3 8 5 - 3 8 8 .

34 L o u i s H . L . M a c k e n z i e , L a t h y r i s m in t h e G i l g i t A g e n c y , I n d i a n M e d i -

c a l G a z e t te V o l . 6 2 ( 1 9 2 7 ) , p . 2 0 1 .35

Roy, op. cit., p p. 263-265, and his article, "Note on Diet Surveys Car-ried out in the Central Provinces and Berar," Indian Medical Gazette, Vol. 81(1946), pp. 546-549.

80 Roy, op. cit., (1951), p. 265; Stockman, op. cit., pp. 279 and 295; and

Watt, op . c i t . p . 705.

YEARBOOK VOLUME 33 1971 45

findings, the possibility of cultivating lower-toxin plants on a mu chlarger scale than in the past is now being pursued.37

Perhaps the most persistent belief associated with lathyrismhas been that if the consumption of khesari was stopped within afew days after the beginning of the disease there would be no furtherharmful effects. This simple assumption has never been medicallyverified because so few cases have been observed from the initialonset of lathyrism, but significant improvements have been notedin patients who have stopped eating khesari within a few weeksafter detection of the disease. However, during famine periods inparticular, there is often no alternative to habitual consumption of

khesari except starvation. What never seems to have occurred tokhesari eaters is the significance of the proportion of khesari in theirdiets. It has b een de monstrated that lathyrism is most likely to occurin areas where grass pea comprises more than 40 percent of thedaily diet.

38

Attempts at both prevention and cure of the disease were madelong before the identification of the toxic substances. Based on thebelief that prevention is better than cure, various Indian states sincethe 1920's have periodically banned the cultivation or sale of variousspecies of Lathyrus. Since 1948 there has bee n increasing pressure bythe Indian government through laws, agricultural education, andhealth-service propaganda to restrict the cultivation of grass peain northern In dia. Effects of the pressure are now being seen throughthe decreasing significance of the plant in the land-use and dietarypatterns of tha t region.39 Because of th e intense cultural conservatismencountered in many rural areas, attempts are also being made toproduce less poisonous varieties.

Several states have imposed restrictions on the movement ofthe seeds from areas of production to urban centers. In some dhals,public health agencies have found it difficult to discover the grou nd

37 Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. c i t . pp. 98-99.

38 R o y , op. cit., ( 1 9 5 1 ) , p p . 2 6 4 - 2 6 5 , a n d K . L. S h o u r i e , A n O u t b r e a k o f

L a t h y r i s m i n C e n t r a l I n d i a , I n d i a n J o u r n a l of M e d i c a l R e s e a r c h V o l . 3 3(1945), pp. 245-246.

39 Indian Council of Medical Research, "A Review of Nutrition Studies in

India," Special Report No. 22 (New Delhi, 1951), p. 9; Whyte, o p. c i t . p. 378;and Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. cit., pp. 95-99.



« ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS

parts of grass pea seeds, but a method ofrecenöy been found based on detecting the

opul ré through eLation TdRoasting the seeds has resulted in a lossthe toxic factors. If severely roastedrender them inedible.« In ild T

d prostign.n have Ä

« leather-viLg,the use of the legsis hoped that fc

de-emphasize^rehabilitaron, it

40 V. Nagarajan and V. S. Mohan, "A Simple and Specific Method for

Détection of Adulteration with Lathvrus sativus," Indian Journal of MedicalResearch, Vol. 55 (1967) , pp. 1011-1014.

41 V. S. Mohan et al., "Simple Practical Procedures for the Removal ofToxic Factors in Lathyrus sativus, Indian Journal of Medical Research, Vol.54 (1966), pp. 410-414, and Nagarajan and Gopalan, op. cit., p. 95.

*2 Mohan, op. cit., pp. 410-414. The fact that no occurrences of lathyrism

have been reported among the Indian populations of South Africa has beenattributed to the consumption of grass pea seeds in the very popular form ofroasted nuts. See Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, op. cit., p. 615.

Problems in Tropical Agriculture:A Case Study from Guam

DAVID LEE*

THE ISLAND OF GUAM appears at first glance to meet all of the clichesrequired of a tropical paradise-blue lagoons, coral-sand beaches,coconut palms bent by the trade winds. An observer, having recentlytoured the vast plantations of pineapple and sugar cane in Hawaii,might be struck with a sense of the great agricultural potential of theisland. Indeed, the list of economically useful plants which can begrown on Guam is long, suggesting that agriculture does, or at leastshould, provide significant employment for the island's people. Thefacts show the contrary. Excluding some 38,000 military personnel,the population of Guam is 63,000/ Of these a mere 252 are full-timefarmers.2 The amount of land devoted to cultivation is slightly morethan one percent of the total area of the island (Figure I).3 Obvi-ously agriculture is of miniscular significance to the island's economy,but why? In this study, conditions of agriculture on Guam wereexamined and an attempt was made to analyze agricultural problemson the island. Some of these problems involve the physical land-scape—the soils, slope of land, climate, and vegetation. Others arerelated to land tenure, labor, markets, alternative land uses, andcompetition from other crop-producing areas.

* Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Cali-

fornia, Davis 95616. This paper was presented at the meeting of the California

Council for Geographic Education at San Diego State College in May 1969.1 Territory of Guam, Department of Labor and Personnel, Guam Employ-

ment Service, Comprehensive Manpower Plan, June 1968.2 Territory of Guam, Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, Fiscal

Year 1968 (July 1968), Table IX.8 U. S., Congress, House, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Eco-

nomic Development of the Territory of Guam, 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 1966, p.138.

47



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