Stress-related over-enhancement of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis causes experimental neurolathyrism in rats.

Neurolathyrism is a motor neuron disease that is caused by the overconsumption of grass peas (Lathyrus sativus L.) under stressful conditions. The neuro-excitatory β-N-oxalyl-L-α,β-diaminopropionic acid present in grass peas was proposed the causative agent of spastic paraparesis of the legs.

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.): orphan crop, nutraceutical or just plain food?

Although grass pea is an environmentally successful robust legume with major traits of interest for food and nutrition security, the genetic potential of this orphan crop has long been neglected. Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a Neolithic plant that has survived millennia of cultivation and has spread over three continents.

Vascular insult accompanied by overexpressed heme oxygenase-1 as a pathophysiological mechanism in experimental neurolathyrism with hind-leg paraparesis.

Neurolathyrism (NL) is a motor neuron disease characterized by spastic paraparesis in the hind legs. β-N-oxalyl-l-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (l-β-ODAP), a component amino acid of the grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.), has been proposed as the cause of this disease.

Research on motor neuron diseases konzo and neurolathyrism: trends from 1990 to 2010.

Konzo (caused by consumption of improperly processed cassava, Manihot esculenta) and neurolathyrism (caused by prolonged overconsumption of grass pea, Lathyrus sativus) are two distinct non-infectious upper motor neurone diseases with identical clinical symptoms of spastic paraparesis of the legs. They affect many thousands of people among the poor in the remote rural areas in the central and southern parts of Africa afflicting them with konzo in Ethiopia and in the Indian sub-continent with neurolathyrism. Both diseases are toxico-nutritional problems due to monotonous consumption of starchy cassava roots or protein-rich grass pea seeds as a staple, especially during drought and famine periods.