“Folate?”Here!Vitamin B9
Appears in 1 scanned product.
As a supplement
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
Roll Call does not check drug interactions or assess personal safety.
A water-soluble B vitamin found naturally in leafy greens and legumes as folate, and added to supplements and fortified foods as the synthetic form folic acid.
Why it’s used
Taken to support cell division and red blood cell formation, and specifically recommended around pregnancy to support neural tube development.
What the evidence is for
reducing neural tube defect risk when taken before and during early pregnancy.
What the evidence says
NIH ODS describes evidence for folic acid reducing neural tube defect risk when taken before and during early pregnancy as well established. Evidence for benefit from folate supplementation outside of pregnancy or known deficiency is much less clear.
Dose studied
400–1000 mcg — RDA to tolerable upper intake level for adults, per NIH ODS.
Context
The pregnancy-related evidence is specific to the periconceptional period and studied primarily in the synthetic folic acid form rather than natural dietary folate.
Rumors
Reducing neural tube defect risk when taken before and during early pregnancy.
Supports — establishedhealth and safety evidence
Studied in: women of childbearing age / pregnant women.
Measured as an outcome.
- Folate - Health Professional Fact Sheet (Regulatory) · Funding not checked
How much is a reference amount
- 400 mcg DFE a dayfor adults 19 and over · Recommended Dietary Allowance
Upper limit 1,000 mcg a day, from supplements and fortified foods — it does not apply to the nutrient as it occurs in food and only to synthetic folic acid — not to folate as it occurs in food.
The RDA is in dietary folate equivalents; the UL is in mcg of SYNTHETIC folic acid from supplements and fortified foods only — the FNB set no UL for folate from food. A label stating plain mcg cannot be compared to the DFE figure without knowing the form.
Every applicable line is shown because we don’t know which one is yours, and a reference intake is a target for a population, not a threshold for harm.