Category: vitamin
Aliases: Vitamin B9 (food folate), Dietary folate, Natural folate, Folate, total
The naturally-occurring mixture of reduced folate vitamers in whole foods — predominantly 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate polyglutamates, with smaller amounts of formyl- and tetrahydrofolate forms. Intestinal conjugase hydrolyses the polyglutamates to monoglutamates for absorption; they enter the one-carbon cycle (see [[folate_one_carbon]]) without the DHFR reduction step that synthetic [[folic-acid]] requires, so food folate produces no unmetabolised folic acid (UMFA). Used to log the folate naturally present in foods (USDA 'Folate, total' / 'Folate, food'), where labelling it folic acid misrepresents the chemical form.