Folate is essential vitamin sometimes referred to as vitamin B9, but the most commonly known shape of the additional synthetic "folic acid". Found in low levels in most foods of vegetable origin and found in levels enhanced in the grain due to the fortification, folic acid is a vitamin that has essential roles in the growth of newborn babies and in support of a process known as methylation in adults.
Folic acid is known primarily as an "integrator of pregnancy" for women who are planning to conceive children taking daily folic acid. This is critical to prevent something known as "neural tube defects" (NTD) that are caused by insufficient supply of folate to the fetus when the neural tube is forming and the combination of fortification of food, and integration has greatly prevented.
