Most of the food and supplement industry runs on marketing. Someone puts a plant in a capsule, adds the word "ancient" to the label, and calls it a superfood. No trials. No comparison groups. No published data.
Wolffia globosa isn't that.
This tiny aquatic plant — the world's smallest flowering plant — has actually been through multiple peer-reviewed, randomized clinical trials. On humans. With control groups. Published in proper scientific journals.
And honestly? The results are kind of extraordinary.
Here's a plain-English breakdown of every major trial I know of.
Note: Wolffia globosa has more peer-reviewed clinical research behind it than almost any novel plant protein on the market. If you're the kind of person who actually reads the science before trusting a food brand — then you already get why we built Wolfa around this plant. Interested? If you want to be the first to know when it's available — you know what to do. Get on the Wolfa waitlist → mywolfa.com
First, a Quick Note on Mankai vs. Wolffia Globosa
You'll see the word Mankai throughout the clinical research. Before we get into the trials, it's worth being clear about what that actually means.
Wolffia globosa is the plant species. It's the world's smallest flowering plant — a tiny aquatic plant that grows wild across Asia.
Mankai is a cultivated strain of Wolffia globosa. A specific high-protein variety developed and optimized specifically for human consumption and nutritional research.
Think of it this way: Wolffia globosa is the species. Mankai is the variety — like how "Honeycrisp" is a variety of apple, not a different fruit.
So when a clinical trial says it tested "Mankai" — it tested Wolffia globosa. The same plant. A refined version of it, grown under controlled conditions to maximize its already impressive nutritional profile.
Every trial in this article used Mankai as the Wolffia globosa strain. I'll use both terms interchangeably throughout — now you know why.
Got it? Good. Let's get into it.
Trial #1: The DIRECT-PLUS Trial — The Big One
An 18-month randomized controlled trial run by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. 294 participants. Three intervention groups. One of the most comprehensive dietary clinical trials ever conducted on a novel plant protein source.
How it worked
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three diet groups — all with physical activity included:
- A healthy dietary guidelines group (the control group)
- A standard Mediterranean diet group
- A green Mediterranean diet group
The green Mediterranean diet was the interesting one.
On top of the regular mediterranean diet, this group was instructed to consume 100g of Wolffia globosa Mankai daily — delivered as frozen cubes blended into a 500ml green shake, replacing their animal protein at dinner. They also drank 3–4 cups of green tea a day.
(Side note: the frozen cubes format is actually something I find fascinating from a practical standpoint. No prep. No cooking. Just blend and go. That's exactly the kind of friction-free nutrition delivery I've been obsessing over with Wolfa.)
What the primary outcomes showed:
The green Mediterranean diet group — the Mankai group — outperformed both other groups across multiple health markers. Specifically:
- Significantly reduced cardiometabolic risk — including lower LDL cholesterol and improvements in lipid profile
- Reduced visceral fat compared to both the standard mediterranean diet and control groups
- Slower hippocampal brain atrophy — meaning the Mankai group showed less age-related brain volume decline. Brain health. From a plant shake. Take a second with that.
- Better glycemic control, including lower fasting glucose
- Reduced intrahepatic fat (that's liver fat — a major metabolic marker)
- Beneficial gut microbiome changes, including increased Prevotella bacteria — linked to a plant-rich diet and improved metabolism
And this wasn't a small supplement trial. These were real dietary interventions, tracked over 18 months, with blood samples taken at baseline, six months, and eighteen months.
Ben-Gurion University also partnered with Harvard's School of Public Health on the analysis. This is serious clinical nutrition work.
→ Read the full DIRECT-PLUS trial here.
Trial #2: The Protein Bioavailability Trial
A randomized controlled trial published in Clinical Nutrition — one of the most respected journals in the field. 37 participants. Designed specifically to test whether Wolffia globosa Mankai could hold its own against established protein sources.
How it worked
Participants were put on a stable diet for three days, then fasted overnight. The next morning, they were randomly assigned to eat one of three iso-protein meals (each containing 30g of protein):
- Soft cheese (animal protein)
- Green peas (plant protein)
- Wolffia globosa Mankai (novel aquatic plant protein)
Blood samples were collected at 0, 30, 90, and 180 minutes after eating. Researchers tracked how amino acids moved into the bloodstream — a direct measure of protein bioavailability and digestibility.
What they found:
For most essential amino acids — histidine, phenylalanine, threonine, lysine, tryptophan — Mankai performed essentially the same as both soft cheese and green peas. The amino acid profile held up. The digestibility was there.
Mankai triggered significant increases in seven out of nine essential amino acids within three hours. Cheese triggered six. Green peas triggered six.
But here's the part that genuinely surprised researchers.
Vitamin B12.
When they checked B12 levels at the 180-minute mark, the Mankai group showed a higher increase in serum B12 than both the cheese group and the pea group.
Let me say that again — Mankai, a plant, out-absorbed animal protein on B12.
The conclusion from the study authors: Mankai may provide a high-quality substitute source for animal protein, and a potential bioavailable source of vitamin B12.
For anyone building their diet around plant protein, that's a significant finding.
Trial #3: Postprandial Glucose and Satiety
Beyond the major long-form trials, researchers at Ben-Gurion University also examined what happens to blood sugar directly after you eat Wolffia globosa or Mankai.
The findings showed that consuming Mankai-enriched meals results in lower postprandial (post-meal) blood glucose compared to carbohydrate-equivalent meals. The Mankai meals also scored higher on satiety — meaning people felt fuller for longer after consuming it.
For anyone keeping an eye on their blood sugar, or anyone managing diabetes, that's not a trivial finding.
Which brings us to the next trial.
→ Read the full study.
Trial #4: The Active Diabetes Trial (Still Running)
An ongoing study examining the effects of a Mankai beverage on glycemic control in 104 people living with type 2 diabetes — over a three-month period.
This one isn't published yet. But the fact that researchers are actively pursuing a dedicated diabetes trial — with real study participants, proper randomization, and a defined primary outcome — tells you something. The earlier glucose data was compelling enough to warrant a dedicated investigation.
What the Research Adds Up To
Here's my attempt at a plain summary.
Clinical trials on Wolffia globosa or Mankai — conducted primarily at Ben-Gurion University with Harvard collaboration — have found credible, peer-reviewed evidence for:
- Protein bioavailability comparable to conventional animal protein and plant protein sources like green peas
- Essential amino acids delivered efficiently into the bloodstream
- Vitamin B12 absorption that exceeded both cheese and pea protein in a direct comparison
- Cardiometabolic benefits across an 18-month green Mediterranean diet intervention — including lipid profile improvements, reduced liver fat, and lower LDL
- Better glycemic control and appetite regulation compared to control meals
- Brain health — slower hippocampal atrophy in the Mankai group of the DIRECT-PLUS trial
- Gut microbiome improvements in the green Mediterranean diet group
- Safety — confirmed at consumption levels of 100g fresh weight (10g dry matter) per day, with no adverse findings reported in the published literature
That's a lot of boxes ticked for one small aquatic plant.
→ View the active trial.
Why I Care About This
I'm not a scientist. I'm an entrepreneur who stumbled onto this plant and got fascinated.
But when I started digging into the research, I kept expecting to find the usual limitation: "promising in theory, untested in practice."
I didn't find that.
What I found was a small plant that has been put through proper clinical nutrition science, tested against established protein sources like soy and green peas, tracked across 18-month dietary interventions, and studied at some of the top universities in the world.
That's rare. Genuinely rare.
If you want to eat more plant protein but you're skeptical of brands making wild claims with zero evidence behind them — Wolffia globosa is worth paying attention to.
If you're building a diet around real, whole foods and you want the science to back it up — this is exactly the kind of research you've been looking for.
That's why Wolfa exists. And that's why we're building it around this plant specifically.
Join the Wolfa waitlist → here: https://mywolfa.com/
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