{"id":14835,"date":"2020-01-28T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=14835"},"modified":"2020-01-14T14:31:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T19:31:07","slug":"is-duckweed-a-reliable-source-of-vitamin-b12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/28\/is-duckweed-a-reliable-source-of-vitamin-b12\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Duckweed a Reliable Source of Vitamin B12?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Duckweeds (also known as water\nlentils) are plants that grow on lakes and ponds and that are eaten by ducks,\ngeese, and swans. Some species of duckweed have been traditionally eaten by\npeople in Asian countries. For example, in Thailand, duckweed is used in salads\nand vegetable curries and is found in vegetable markets where it may be called\nkhai nam, kai-pum, or kai nhae (1).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duckweed has been recently investigated\nas a source of nutrients including protein (1). Questions have arisen about\nduckweed\u2019s vitamin B12 content. So far, only one peer-reviewed study has\nexamined this. Researchers reported that a dish made from Mankai duckweed\ncontained vitamin B12 (2). No details were provided of the method used to\nanalyze vitamin B12 which is concerning since some methods measure inactive\nvitamin B12 analogs (3, 4). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When questioned about their\nmethodology (3), the researchers said that they used a method that does not\ndistinguish between active vitamin B12 and vitamin B12 analogs (5). They also\nsaid that they did another kind of test that found that there was some active\nvitamin B12 in the duckweed although no details were provided about how much\nactive vitamin B12 was present (5). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless a food has consistently been\nshown to improve vitamin B12 status in humans, as measured by reducing blood\nlevels of methylmalonic acid, it cannot be considered a reliable source of\nvitamin B12 (4). There are no published reports in peer-reviewed scientific\nliterature of duckweed improving human vitamin B12 status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line: More research needs\nto be conducted and subjected to peer review, before duckweed (or water\nlentils) can be considered a reliable source of vitamin B12 for humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about vitamin\nB12, including vegan sources of vitamin B12, see Vitamin\nB12 in the Vegan Diet<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Appenroth KJ, Sree KS, Bog M, et\nal. Nutritional value of the duckweed species of the genus Wolffia (Lemnaceae)\nas human food. Front Chem. 2018 Oct 29;6:483<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Kaplan A, Zelicha H, Tsaban G, et\nal. Protein bioavailability of Wolffia globosa duckweed, a novel aquatic plant\n– A randomized controlled trial. Clin Nutr. 2019 Dec;38(6):2576-2582. doi:\n10.1016\/j.clnu.2018.12.009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.\nJahreis G, Appenroth KJ, Sree KS, Dawczynski C. Letter to original article by\nKaplan et al. 2018 – Protein bioavailability of Wolffia globosa duckweed, a\nnovel aquatic plant, A randomized controlled trial. Clin Nutr. 2019\nOct;38(5):2463. doi: 10.1016\/j.clnu.2019.07.007.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.\nNorris J. Vitamin B12. Vegan Health website. https:\/\/veganhealth.org\/vitamin-b12\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Kaplan A, Lapidot M, Sela I, Shai\nI. RE: Protein bioavailability of Wolffia globosa duckweed, a novel aquatic\nplant, a randomized controlled trial. Clin Nutr. 2019 Oct;38(5):2464. doi:\n10.1016\/j.clnu.2019.08.007<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of this posting, website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Duckweeds (also known as water lentils) are plants that grow on lakes and ponds and that are eaten by ducks, geese, and swans. Some species of duckweed have been traditionally eaten by people in Asian countries. For example, in Thailand, duckweed is used in salads and vegetable curries and is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14837,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14835\/revisions\/14837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}