Intoxication by the Chickling Pea (Lathyrus sativus): Nervous System and Skeletal Findings

Abstract

Two hundred patients with chronic neurolathyrism were examined 25–35 years after the appearance of signs and symptoms of intoxication of the chickling pea. Their daily food intake, in a German forced labor camp during World War II, consisted of 400 g Lathyrus sativus peas cooked in water plus 200 g bread baked of barley and straw. Apart from the classic signs of neurolathyrism, i.e., a spastic paraparesis, in five cases, the skeletal findings observed were similar to experimental osteolathyrism. There was an absence of ossification centers of the iliac creasts, ischial tuberosities and vertebrae; and bowing with thickening of the femoral shaft also occurred. These bony changes in human lathyrism have not been described before.