Folacin (folic acid)
Folic acid was recognized as a dietary essential for chicks in 1938 and was later shown to be a requirement of other animals. It was first used clinically in 1945 by Spies, who showed it to be effective in the treatment ofmacrocytic anemias of pregnancy and tropical sprue, and these findings have since been confirmed.
Folic acid (pteroylglutamic acid, PGA) is not found as such in foods or in the human body, but it is converted to the active forms by the body. It is the parent compound that is common in the structure of the different forms that perform the metabolic functions of folacin. Folacin occurs in foods chiefly as one ofthe polyglutamate deriva tives of tetrahydrofolic acid (THF A), methyl tetrahydrofolic acid (N° methyl THF A).
