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Essential for cell development

Folate, a water-soluble B vitamin, is essential for making DNA and RNA

In 1931, Lucy Wills was studying anaemia in pregnancy among female textile workers in Mumbai. She discovered that a large cell type of anaemia could be prevented by adding yeast to a diet otherwise deficient in Vitamin B. The crucial factor in yeast extract was folic acid, the synthetic form of folate.

Folate (Latin folium for leaf) is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food. It is essential for making DNA and RNA, the building blocks of life. Apart from supporting the fast turnover of cells in the bone marrow and the gut's inner lining in adults and children, folate is especially important for the rapid cell division and the DNA and RNA formation of infancy and pregnancy. It also helps prevent cancer-causing changes to the DNA.

Folate-rich foods include leafy green vegetables such as spinach, fruit, dried beans, peas, parboiled rice and liver. Foods fortified with folic acid are also excellent sources of this vitamin. Because it is a water-soluble vitamin, draining excess water after cooking decreases the folate content of food.

Adults need 400 micrograms of folate per day. One cup of raw spinach contains 60 microgram of folate, and half cup of frozen green peas contains 50 microgram. Pregnant women need 600 microgram of folate per day.

Folate is a critical vitamin for women who might become pregnant.

Adequate folate intake just before and after conception protects the foetus against neural tube defects.

Since most pregnancies are unplanned, all women who might become pregnant need to take folate-rich foods daily. Folate deficiency is a major cause of megaloblastic anaemia. It also elevates blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid, and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Children have stunted growth when folate is less.

Non-specific symptoms of folate deficiency include diarrhoea, loss of appetite, weight loss, weakness, sore tongue, headache, palpitations, irritability, forgetfulness and behavioural disorders.

Apart from pregnant and lactating women, alcohol consumers and abusers, those undergoing dialysis, people having malabsorption, liver disease and anaemia of folate deficiency have increased folate requirement.

Phenytoin and primidone-drugs used to control epilepsy — increase folate requirement dramatically.

RAJIV M.

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