[ania]

Hello,

I am new to the forum.  I'm not a chemist, but researcher due to forced circumstances that have led me to look into specifics in certain areas of biochemistry.  I am hoping few seasoned biochemists would be willing an could help me with a few things. 

To get to my first question I'm looking for some answers regarding folate. 

As I understand folic acid and folate are not the same, the former is synthetic made, the latter a natural substance found in leafy vegetables. 

What I am trying to understand is the specific breakdown of folate. 

Up until this point from my research I've gathered that _folic acid_ undergoes several processes and ultimately breaks down into something called 5-MTHFR (methyltetrahydrofolate). 

My question is, does anyone know of/ have any type of literature or done their own studies regarding how _folate_ itself breaks down in the body.  Does it also ultimately break down into 5-MTHFR in the end as does folic acid or does it become something else once digested?

Thank you.  Any constructive help greatly appreciated. 

[Borek]

I had to check. In chemistry "folate" refers to the anion present in the salts of the folic acid (and these salts are called folates - sodium folate is what you produce reacting folic acid with sodium hydroxide). According to wikipedia "Food supplement manufacturers often use the term folate for something different from "pure" folic acid: in chemistry, folate refers to the deprotonated ion, and folic acid to the neutral molecule—which both coexist in water. (...) Folate indicates a collection of "folates" that is not chemically well-characterized, including other members of the family of pteroylglutamates, or mixtures of them, having various levels of reduction of the pteridine ring, one-carbon substitutions and different numbers of glutamate residues."

My question is, does anyone know of/ have any type of literature or done their own studies regarding how _folate_ itself breaks down in the body.  Does it also ultimately break down into 5-MTHFR in the end as does folic acid or does it become something else once digested?

Whatever folic acids (or its salts) are present in the "folate", they will follow the same path as chemically pure folic acid does. Hard to say what happens to other compounds present in "folate" - my guess would be that some follow the same path, while others don't. And yes, I am perfectly aware this is a useless answer, however, question is poorly defined because the composition of the "folate" is poorly defined.

[Babcock_Hall]

Nothing in this post should be construed as medical advice.  Far from being a product of degradation, methyltetrahydrofolate is one of several compounds produced naturally from folate.  Methyltetrahydrofolate is a coenzyme.  Coenzymes often function as substrates in biochemical reactions.  For example, methyltetrahydrofolate helps an enzyme in the body to synthesize methionine from homocysteine with the additional help of vitamin B12.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20608755

Folate much be reduced to tetrahydrofolate (by the addition of four electrons), before it can participate in one-carbon metabolism.  Methyltetrahydrofolate is one of several derivatives; another important one is methylene-tetrahydrofolate.