correspondence Cover t trade in toxic vetch continues Sir — The Commentary “A mess of red re-emergence. Unlabelled bags of split red exported labelled as whole vetch. pottage” by two of us1 exposed the export vetch (240 tonnes) had been exported from When cooked (without leaching) in from Australia of seeds from toxic common Adelaide via Johor in Malaysia to Colombo. mistake for red lentils, 1,000 tonnes of vetch vetch (Vicia sativa) as a cheap substitute for On arrival, the container documentation gives ten million 100-g platefuls, each the edible red lentil (Lens culinaris). Despite had changed from “red split vetch” to “red containing 0.5 g of cyanoalanine toxins. The curbs to this trade in the wake of our article, split lentils”. This event was extensively harmful effects of vetch consumption in the problem has recurred. reported in the Sri Lankan Daily News3, but animals are known, but the effects on Dietary cyanoalanine neurotoxins from was ignored by the international media. humans are not. Most at risk are vetch accumulate in the brains and livers of In April 1999, a report on Australian malnourished vegetarian societies with pigs, rats and poultry. Effects on sulphur ABC radio4 gave details of the multi- sulphur-deficient diets. metabolism result in urinary excretion of thousand tonne vetch/lentil substitution To protect a valuable and expanding cystathionine and accumulation of the racket. The export price (A$340–400 per lentil industry, the Australian government non-functional glutathione analogue tonne) leaves no doubt that the bulk is sold moved swiftly (7 April 1999) to declare both ȍ-glutamyl-ȋ-cyanoalanyl-glycine. for human consumption. Exports (in vetch and lentils as prescribed grains. This E. G. Brown2 pointed out that the genetic tonnes) from South Australia for the first means that inspection and phytosanitary predisposition towards favism in four months of 1999 include: split vetch to certification are mandatory before export. Mediterranean communities makes this Yemen (22) and United Arab Emirates Unfortunately, the financial rewards to doubly unfortunate, because common vetch (194); and ‘whole vetch’ to Argentina (10), exporters and importers are still too high to contains the favism toxin vicine. Bangladesh (989), Belgium (187), Germany eliminate this dishonest trade. After our Commentary was published, (63), Italy (149), Japan (120), Mexico (40), Max E. Tate*, Jane Rathjen, Ian Delaere, India and Egypt banned, and Saudi Arabia The Netherlands (124), Pakistan (903), The Dirk Enneking restricted, imports of vetch. The Victorian Philippines (22), Portugal (106), South Department of Plant Science, University of Adelaide, Weekly Times published articles entitled Africa (42) and Taiwan (86). Waite Campus, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064 “Scientists cripple vetch industry” and “Vetch From these data, and the sale of *Visiting scientist now unfit for humans to eat”. The A$18 unlabelled split red vetch in the markets of 1. Tate, M. E. & Enneking, D. Nature 359, 357–358 (1992). million (US$11.7 million) market collapsed. Pakistan and Bangladesh, we conclude that 2. Brown, E. G. Nature 360, 9 (1992). But last year we were alerted by the Sri either it is being split in the importing 3. http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/archive.html (8 October 1998). Lankan Health Department of the problem’s country or it is being split in Australia and 4. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s22429.htm

are as important a component of the greatly from the involvement of a broad Valuable biodiversity infrastructure for biological sciences as pool of perspectives and contributions. In electron microscopes and ultracentrifuges. this setting, the Varmus initiative is data under threat Angelo Capparella welcome, as are the critical evaluations to Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State which the proposal will be subject. Sir — Your report1 on the move by the University, Normal, Illinois 61790, USA Some of the valid concerns are the Burke Museum of Natural History and 1. Dalton, R. Nature 399, 189 (1999). preservation and organization of materials; Culture to become independent of the 2. Winker, K. Cons. Biol. 10, 703 (1996). cataloguing; provenance (whether to peer University of Washington, Seattle, because review); copyright; and economic impact of a lack of financial support from the (including access in less developed university, illustrates one of the threats countries). To advance the ‘E-Biomed’ facing university biodiversity collections. Global e-journal must proposal, I suggest that a moderated The Burke museum has the advantage of listserver is set up to initiate documentation size to make plausible its becoming an take radical approach and development of the larger community independent institution. But curators of of interest. The NIH would be an smaller, yet important, collections often Sir — Much nonsense has been written appropriate host. These groups should be face a similar financial crunch that cannot about the ‘E-Biomed’ initiative to launch a encouraged to participate: authors and be solved by becoming independent. They global website for much of the biomedical researchers; archivists and librarians; have the option of minimal management of literature, announced by Harold Varmus, Internet specialists; publishers and the collections, sometimes through out-of- director of the US National Institutes of professional organizations; and readers. pocket support, or of allowing the Health (NIH). If it were the case that the I am initially mistrustful of what appears collections to become orphaned. present system had served science well for to be (largely) an electronic replication of If orphaned collections are not 300 years, for example, the outrage over the existing methods of publication. One transferred to an institution interested in present state of scientific publishing felt in possibility is that ‘E-Biomed’ could host their care, the result is a tragic, irreplaceable some quarters would not exist (see Nature papers vetted by ‘alternative’ editorial loss of biodiversity data. That is certain to 398, 735 & 399, 292; 1999). boards, whose composition would be hasten the decline of university training in Happily, dialogue has been under way publicly stated, and whose editorial systematic biology, which depends on worldwide for some time, involving people manifesto would be published, but whose collections. These and other factors from various disciplines, to investigate how membership would not be controlled by a contribute to what is aptly called “the electronic publishing can reach the broadest central governing board. crumbling infrastructure of biodiversity”2. possible audience. Some new model will Lance Sultzbaugh It is to be hoped that universities will emerge from this process. Harmonization of Elan Pharmaceuticals, 3760 Haven Avenue, recognize that their biodiversity collections goals and means is difficult, and benefits Menlo Park, California 94025, USA

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