Waaraan stierf Chris McCandless?

Het eerste deel van dit artikel vindt u hier. (Barends Blik)

Het muisje kreeg echter een staartje, vooral door toedoen van Jon Krakauer, zelf een avonturier, die zich in de materie vastgebeten heeft. De vraag was waaraan Chris McCandless overleden was. De officiële lezing, na de autopsie, was: ondervoeding, uithongering. 

Maar volgens Krakauer was het vergiftiging, ten gevolge van het eten van zaden van de Hedysarum alpinum (foto), volop aanwezig rond de autobus. Deze zouden een verlamming teweeg gebracht hebben. Vorige maand publiceerde hij hierover een mooi artikel in de New Yorker, het staat hier.  
Wikipedia vat de langlopende discussie als volgt samen:

Some species, such as Hedysarum alpinum also known as Alpine Sweetvetch, were eaten by the Inuit to help ward off the effects of scurvy due to it being rich in vitamin C, containing about 21 mg/100g. Charles Darwin also called the telegraph plant Hedysarum.

In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer incorrectly speculates that Chris McCandless died from eating seeds of H. alpinum, which Krakauer further speculates to contain swainsonine.

This theory was later debunked by experts in the field of botany.
(http://lib-ojs3.lib.sfu.ca:8114/index.php/era/article/viewFile/180/153)

Krakauer subsequently postulated that these seeds were stored wet in a plastic bag, which may have created a toxic by-product, but again there is no evidence to support this claim.

Krakauer was later validated, to a certain extent. He explains that he recently came across the research of a writer, Ronald Hamilton, who had concluded that a neurotoxin, known as ODAP, in the potato seed was responsible for a degenerative disease known as lathyrism.

In August 2013 Krakauer sent a modest sample of the seeds for testing, discovering that they contained ".394 per cent beta-ODAP by weight, a concentration well within the levels known to cause lathyrism in humans.”

Krakauer concludes that "Had McCandless’s guidebook to edible plants warned that Hedysarum alpinum seeds contain a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis, he probably would have walked out of the wild in late August with no more difficulty than when he walked into the wild in April, and would still be alive today."

Rechts Jon Krakauer.
Links Sean Penn, die de geschiedenis van Chris McCandless verfilmde.