Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 May 5;6(5):1861-73.
doi: 10.3390/nu6051861.

Vitamin B₁₂-containing plant food sources for vegetarians

Fumio Watanabe  1 , Yukinori Yabuta  2 , Tomohiro Bito  3 , Fei Teng  4
Affiliations
Review

Vitamin B₁₂-containing plant food sources for vegetarians

Fumio Watanabe et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The usual dietary sources of Vitamin B12 are animal-derived foods, although a few plant-based foods contain substantial amounts of Vitamin B12. To prevent Vitamin B12 deficiency in high-risk populations such as vegetarians, it is necessary to identify plant-derived foods that contain high levels of Vitamin B12. A survey of naturally occurring plant-derived food sources with high Vitamin B12 contents suggested that dried purple laver (nori) is the most suitable Vitamin B12 source presently available for vegetarians. Furthermore, dried purple laver also contains high levels of other nutrients that are lacking in vegetarian diets, such as iron and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Dried purple laver is a natural plant product and it is suitable for most people in various vegetarian groups.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structural formula of Vitamin B12 and partial structures of Vitamin B12 compounds. The partial structures of the Vitamin B12 compounds only show the regions of the molecule that differ from Vitamin B12. (1) 5′-Deoxyadenosylcobalamin; (2) methylcobalamin; (3) hydroxocobalamin; and (4) cyanocobalamin or Vitamin B12.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Various types of dried green and purple lavers are Vitamin B12 sources: (1) a Japanese green laver, (Suji-aonori, Entromopha prolifera); (2) ordinary purple lavers (Porphyra sp.; nori, which has been formed into a sheet and dried); (3) Taiwan purple laver (Hong-mao-tai, Bangia atropurpurea); and (4) New Zealand purple laver (Karengo, a mixture of Porphyra cinnamomea and Porphyra virididentata).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structural formulae of Vitamin B12 and pseudovitamin B12. (1) Vitamin B12 and (2) pseudovitamin B12 (7-adeninyl cyanocobamide).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proposed method for improving nutrient imbalance in vegetarian diets using dried purple laver as a Vitamin B12 source in addition to other plant-based food sources.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Watanabe F., Miyamoto E. Hydrophilic Vitamins. In: Sherma J., Fried B., editors. Handbook of Thin-Layer Chromatography. 3rd ed. Marcel Dekker, Inc.; New York, NY, USA: 2003. pp. 589–605.
    1. Chen Z., Crippen K., Gulati S., Banerjee R. Purification and kinetic mechanism of a mammalian methionine synthase from pig liver. J. Biol. Chem. 1994;269:27193–27197. - PubMed
    1. Fenton W.A., Hack A.M., Willard H.F., Gertler A., Rosenberg L.E. Purification and properties of methylmalonyl coenzyme A mutase from human liver. Arch. Biochem. 1982;228:323–329. - PubMed
    1. Watanabe F. Vitamin B12 sources and bioavailability. Exp. Biol. Med. 2007;232:1266–1274. doi: 10.3181/0703-MR-67. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Watanabe F., Yabuta Y., Tanioka Y., Bito T. Biologically active vitamin B12 compounds in foods for preventing deficiency among vegetarians and elderly subjects. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2013;61:6769–6775. doi: 10.1021/jf401545z. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources