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- Intake of Chlorella pyrenoidosa lowers serum methylmalonic acid levels in vegetarians
with a suspected vitamin B12 deficiency.
Intake of Chlorella pyrenoidosa lowers serum methylmalonic acid levels in vegetarians with a suspected vitamin B12 deficiency.
【Scientific information】
Research and Development Department, Sun Chlorella Corporation
Intake of Chlorella pyrenoidosa lowers serum methylmalonic acid levels in vegetarians with a suspected vitamin B12 deficiency.
Published in Journal of Medicinal Food (18[12], 2015)
- Objectives
- Vitamin B12 is an essential nutrient that contributes to the maintenance of normal neuronal function
and blood condition. Because vitamin B12 is available only in animal products, vitamin B12
deficiency has commonly occurred in vegetarians and caused elevated serum methylmalonic acid
(MMA) levels. Vitamin B12 deficiency may be associated with megaloblastic anemia and
gastrointestinal diseases.
Vegetarians are recommended to take vitamin B12 as supplements to prevent vitamin B12 deficiency. However, some supplements contain an inactive form of vitamin B12. Recently, Chlorella pyrenoidosa (hereafter, "Chlorella") has also been shown to contain vitamin B12, although the effect of vitamin B12 contained in Chlorella on humans remains unknown. Thus, we assessed the effect of Chlorella in vegetarians.
- Methods
- Seventeen vegetarians with higher serum MMA levels took 9 g of Chlorella (21 μg of vitamin B12) daily for 60 days, and their serum vitamin B12 and MMA levels were monitored.
- Results
- The serum vitamin B12 levels of all subjects showed an average increase by 21% on day 30 and
27% on day 60 as compared with those at the start of the study (Fig. 1).
The serum MMA levels of all subjects showed an average decrease by 32% on day 30 and 34%
on day 60 as compared with those at the start of the study (Fig. 2).
In addition, serum MMA levels were increased in 8 subjects after Chlorella intake 60 days followed
by cessation of Chlorella intake 30 days.
On the basis of these results, it was suggested that vitamin B12 contained in Chlorella exerts an effect in humans after being absorbed by the body and thus that Chlorella intake is useful in overcoming vitamin B12 deficiency.
Details
- Journal：
- Journal of Medicinal Food, 18(12), published on December 17, 2015
- Title：
- Nutritional Supplementation with Chlorella pyrenoidosa Lowers Serum Methylmalonic Acid in Vegans and Vegetarians with a Suspected Vitamin B12 Deficiency
- Authors：
- Randall Edward Merchant1), Todd W. Phillips1), Jay Udani2)
- Affiliation：
- 1) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
2) Medicus Research, LLC, Northridge, California, USA
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