Release time：2022-12-09 Click:
Many people always think folate equals to folic acid.
We would like to take the chance to share more regarding the real difference among folate, folic acid and methylfolate.
Firstly, folate is an umbrella term for food folate, folic acid and methylfolate. You may know that folate is named according to the Latin meaning of leaf called folium because the scientist H.K.Mitchell found a factor of streptococcus lactis from Spinach in 1941.
There are three kinds source for folate.
Food folate
Folic acid
Methylfolate
It’s easy to understand food folate which can be easily got from some green vegetables and animal liver.However, if you wanted to get enough folate only via food, it will be a big challenge because the food folate is easily damaged by food processing and cooking. Folic acid was developed in 1945, and it’s still the most popular folate source in current market. Essentially,folic acid is not a naturally occurring folate form on the earth. It must be reduced to the metabolically active form of L-5-MTHF within the cell, through a series of biochemical steps before it can be used by the body’s cells in vital metabolic pathways.
Methylfolate, which is also called L-methylfolate, L-5-Methyltetrahydrofolate Calcium, Levemofolate, active folate, etc. It’s the naturally occurring folate form in your body. It’s studied that 95%~98% serum folate is the form of 5-MTHF. In umbilical cord blood, 89.4% folate form is 5-MTHF. The concentration of 5-MTHF in umbilical cord blood is about 2 times higher than that in maternal serum.[1]
For a better understanding for the folate metabolism, you can visit here. https://www.leadingchemical.com/gb2312/Lmethylfolate/
Reference: [1]https://neurology.testcatalog.org/show/FOL