Vitamin B9 | Folic acid

Vitamin B9 | Folic acid

Properties: Vitamin B9 is a good example of how broad a spectrum of action vitamins can have. It’s essential for the proper functioning of the body so we need to provide it to our organism. What is more, its optimal level determines the formation of the nervous system as early as at the fetal stage of human development. That is why the most important properties of this vitamin mainly involve this particular system.

Folic acid helps to protect neurons against harmful substances that could cause damage to the cells. It is possible because vitamin B9 affects the formation of myelin sheaths that surround axons. What does it mean to us? Quite a bit. Myelin around neurons is a protection against mechanical damage and, in addition, it speeds up the flow of nerve impulses because it serves as a kind of electrical insulation. Consequently, thanks to vitamin B9, the brain works faster. Not only does the information processing speed up but concentration and ability to memorise also improve.  

But we need more than just the intellectual ability. It is hard to function without the right level of motivation and a good mood, and in that regard vitamin B9 turns out to be extremely important. It affects our well-being because it is involved in the production of substances responsible for mood enhancement. Thus, folic acid can be an effective support when we are dealing with a lowered mood and we want to take care of the proper functioning of the nervous system. What is more, the beneficial effect of vitamin B9 is associated with the optimal functioning of the cardiovascular system. Together with vitamin B12, it takes part in the process of red blood cells production. It also helps to prevent diseases related to the circulatory system – including atherosclerosis. Keep in mind that folic acid also serves as a natural antioxidant. It is therefore effective in “cleansing” the body from toxins. 

There is no doubt that it would be hard to function without the vitamin B9. It would be even impossible. We’ve been exposed to this vitamin since childhood and our organism “demands” it throughout our entire life. That is when supplements that complement the deficiencies of vitamin B9 come into play.

Occurrence: Small amounts of folic acid are produced by microbes that live in our gastrointestinal tract. But this is not enough to meet the needs of the human body. That is why the main source of vitamin B9 is food: poultry liver, eggs, white cheese, soy, wheat bran, spinach, bean, pea, parsley, brussels, lettuce, buckwheat, barley and whole wheat bread.

Biochemistry: Folic acid is a derivative of pterin. It contains the radicals of p-aminobenzoic and glutamic acids. Folic acid can also be considered as pteroylglutamic acid because the combination of pterin and p-aminobenzoic acid is called the pteroic acid. In various sources we can find a large number of analogues of folic acid and related compounds. They differ in the degree of hydrogenation, the substituents at the N-5 and N-10 positions and in the length of the side chain that is formed by the combination of radicals of glutamic acid. Possibly there are 150  different forms of folic acid though not all of them have been found in nature.

Fun fact: Vitamin B9 was first isolated in 1941 by three scientists: Herschel Michell, Esmond Snell and Roger Williams. To accomplish this, they had used 4 tons of spinach leaves. The name of this vitamin is derived from the leaves (lat. folium) – acidum folicum, hence the name “folic acid”. However, only in the early 1990s, it was proven that vitamin B9 is crucial for the development of the nervous system in the fetus.