What is folic acid? In the academic definition, folic acid is a compound composed of pteridine, p-aminobenzoic acid and glutamic acid, and it is a water-soluble B vitamin. It was extracted and purified from spinach leaves by Mitchell (hell, 194 1), so it was named folic acid. As early as 1948, the important nutritional effect of folic acid on human body has been confirmed. Folic acid can promote the maturation of young cells in bone marrow. If people (or other animals) lack folic acid, it will cause megaloblastic anemia and leukopenia, and it will also lead to weakness, irritability, loss of appetite and mental symptoms.

In addition, some studies have found that folic acid plays a vital role in the growth and development of pregnant women and fetuses. If folic acid is lacking in the first three months of pregnancy, it will lead to fetal neural tube development defects, thus increasing the incidence of schizencephaly and anencephaly. However, if pregnant women can supplement folic acid regularly and properly during pregnancy, it can prevent birth defects such as neonatal underweight, premature delivery and cleft palate (rabbit lip).

It should be noted that although folic acid plays a very important role in the human body, the human body itself cannot synthesize folic acid, and we need to take it from food. Natural folic acid is widely found in animal and plant foods, especially in yeast, liver and green leafy vegetables. However, because folic acid is unstable when exposed to light and heat, it is easy to lose its activity, so there is not much folic acid that the human body can really get from food. Many times, we need to rely on folic acid health products to provide enough folic acid for the human body.