12 Facts About Folic acid

Folate in the form of folic acid is used to treat anemia caused by folate deficiency.

Folic acid is used as a supplement by women during pregnancy to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in the baby.

Long-term supplementation with relatively large amounts of folic acid is associated with a small reduction in the risk of stroke and an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Prenatal supplementation with folic acid did not appear to reduce the risk of preterm births.

Folic acid supplements have little established role in cancer chemotherapy.

Pterin is in turn derived in a series of enzymatically catalyzed steps from guanosine triphosphate, while para-aminobenzoic Folic acid is a product of the shikimate pathway.

All of the biological functions of folic acid are performed by THF and its methylated derivatives.

Folic acid is first reduced to dihydrofolate and then to tetrahydrofolate.

Risk of toxicity from folic acid is low because folate is a water-soluble vitamin and is regularly removed from the body through urine.

Folic acid fortification is a process where synthetic folic acid is added to wheat flour or other foods with the intention of promoting public health through increasing blood folate levels in the populace.

Folic acid is added to grain products in more than 80 countries, either as required or voluntary fortification, and these fortified products make up a significant source of the population's folate intake.

However, at blood concentrations achieved via food fortification, folic acid has no known cofactor function that would increase the likelihood of a causal role for free FA in disease development.