Folacin/Folic Acid - what is it?
Folic Acid, New RDA* 2000 mg
Folic acid, known as folate in its natural form, is one of the B-group of vitamins. Folate is found in small amounts in many foods.
Folate is a water-soluble vitamin, which means you need it in your diet every day because it can't be stored in the body.
Folic acid (PGA) per se is not present in significant quantities in foods or in the human body. The derivatives of PGA which are predominantly present in the human body, and in plant- and animalderived foods, are reduced folates, mostly 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolates (THF), and also 7,8-dihydrofolate (DHF). Other modifications also occur.
*Sourced from EFSA WEBSITE
Folic Acid - what does it do?
Needed for the formation of healthy red blood cells.
It is also needed for the nervous system and specifically for the development of the nervous system in unborn babies.
Folate coenzymes within the cell are involved in one-carbon transfer reactions, including those involved in phases of amino acid metabolism, purine and pyrimidine synthesis, and the formation of the primary methylating agent, S-adenosylmethionine.
Deficiency
Folate deficiency results in reduced de novo DNA biosynthesis and thus, impairment of cell replication, with the most obvious effects relating to rapidly dividing cell-types, such as erythrocytes and other cells generated by the bone marrow, enterocytes and skin cells. The condition causes megaloblastic and macrocytic anaemia.
Vitamin B12 deficiency also causes a macrocytic megaloblastic anaemia and should be excluded before folate treatment alone is given. Nutritional folate deficiency may develop during pregnancy, infection, malignant disease, malabsorption syndromes (e.g. coeliac disease) or alcoholism, during some drug treatments and in the older people on restricted diets.
Folic Acid - Sources
Green leafy vegetables, brown rice, peas, oranges, bananas and fortified breakfast cereals.
