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.