Folate or folic acid: what is the difference, and what is active folate?

Ingredient in focus · Folate at Health Royals · 7 min read

Folate is vitamin B9 as it occurs in food. Folic acid is the stable synthetic form used in fortified foods and many supplements, and the body converts it in several steps before it can be used. Active folate, 5-MTHF, is the form that already circulates in the blood. That is the form Health Royals chose for Peak Performance Formula: 200 µg a day as Quatrefolic® from Gnosis by Lesaffre, exactly the EU reference intake.

Folate is one of those nutrients almost everyone has heard of and few can describe. Folate, folic acid, vitamin B9 and 5-MTHF are used as if they meant the same thing, but one names a vitamin family and the others are molecules within it. That distinction explains most of what is confusing about folate on a label.

Here we go through what separates folate from folic acid, what active folate is, how much you need, and how we chose the folate in Peak Performance, our daily multivitamin for women with omega 3 from algae. The questions were the ones we ask of every nutrient: which form, from which manufacturer, at what dose.

Folate at Health Royals

Peak Performance provides 200 µg of folate per daily dose as Quatrefolic® 5-MTHF from Gnosis by Lesaffre, 100 per cent of the nutrient reference value for adults, together with 10 µg of vitamin B12 as MecobalActive® methylcobalamin. Folate contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Vitamin B12 contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.

See Peak Performance, multivitamin for women with omega 3

What is folate?

Folate is the collective name for a group of related compounds that share the same vitamin activity. In everyday language the group is called vitamin B9. It is water soluble, so the body stores comparatively little and depends on a regular intake from food.

Inside the body, folate compounds work as carriers. They pick up and hand over small chemical fragments known as one carbon units, needed when cells build new genetic material and when certain amino acids are converted into one another. That is why folate is tied to growth and renewal rather than to a single organ: any tissue that produces new cells depends on the folate cycle running.

What is the difference between folate and folic acid?

The difference is structural, and clearest with the three words kept apart.

Folate is the family name, covering the naturally occurring forms in food and the forms circulating in the body.

Folic acid is a synthetic, fully oxidised molecule. Before it can take part in the folate cycle it must be reduced in two steps, first to dihydrofolate and then to tetrahydrofolate, after which it is converted onwards. It is chemically stable, which is exactly why it became the standard choice for fortified flour and for supplements with a long shelf life.

5-MTHF, short for 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, sits at the other end of that sequence. It is already reduced and already methylated, and it is the predominant folate form measured in human circulation.

Folic acid therefore enters the pathway near its beginning, while 5-MTHF enters where folate is normally found in the blood. European assessments recognise 5-MTHF as a bioavailable source of folate, at least comparable with folic acid at supplemental intakes when counting dietary folate equivalents.

The human studies point the same way. In healthy women, Lamers and colleagues found that [6S]-5-MTHF and folic acid reduced plasma total homocysteine equally. A later study from the same group found that red blood cell folate increased more after [6S]-5-MTHF than after folic acid in women of childbearing age. Prinz-Langenohl and colleagues saw plasma folate rise more after [6S]-5-MTHF than after folic acid, both in women with the MTHFR 677C→T gene variant and in women without it.

Folic acid works, and it has an important place in public health nutrition. What 5-MTHF offers is the form the body already uses, without the conversion steps in between, and that is the form we wanted.

What is active folate, and why did we choose Quatrefolic®?

Active folate is the everyday name for 5-MTHF, the folate form that is ready for use when it arrives. In Peak Performance it comes as Quatrefolic®, made by Gnosis by Lesaffre. Chemically it is the glucosamine salt of (6S)-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, and two details in that name matter.

The (6S) prefix identifies the stereochemistry. Folate molecules exist as mirror image forms and only one of them is biologically active, so specifying (6S) means the active isomer rather than a mixture.

The glucosamine salt is a formulation choice. 5-MTHF in free acid form is unstable and poorly soluble. Bound as a glucosamine salt it becomes a defined, water soluble and more stable raw material suited to food supplements.

That stability matters. 200 µg is a fifth of a milligram, and the amount has to be right in every daily dose until the jar is finished. A named raw material with documented identity and quality control is how we make sure the number on the label is what you actually take. Health Royals works with specialist manufacturers, researchers and supplier networks when raw materials are chosen, which we explain in branded and non-branded ingredients.

What does folate do in the body?

Folate has several authorised roles in the EU, easiest to remember in three groups.

The first is building. Folate has a role in the process of cell division, and folate contributes to normal blood formation.

The second is conversion. Folate contributes to normal amino acid synthesis and to normal homocysteine metabolism. The methyl group carried by 5-MTHF is what turns homocysteine back into the amino acid methionine.

The third is everyday function. Folate contributes to normal psychological function, to the normal function of the immune system and to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.

Which foods contain folate?

The word folate comes from folium, the Latin word for leaf, and the etymology is a useful hint.

Leafy greens such as spinach, kale and rocket are among the richest natural sources, together with legumes, asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, avocado, beetroot, citrus fruit, liver, and seeds and nuts.

Folate is sensitive, though. It degrades with heat and storage, and boiled vegetables lose a substantial share to the cooking water. Steaming and a regular portion of raw or lightly cooked greens keep more of it. Many countries also fortify flour with folic acid, so part of the population's intake comes from that synthetic form rather than from food folate.

How much folate do you need, and why does Peak Performance contain 200 µg?

In the EU, the nutrient reference value for folate used on labels is 200 µg per day for adults. That figure is the benchmark any percentage on a label refers to. Peak Performance provides 200 µg of folate per daily dose, which is 100% of the EU nutrient reference value.

For us, the dose is as important as the raw material. The amount is deliberately nutritional rather than high dose. Research on 5-MTHF has found intakes in this range enough to improve folate status, and doubling the amount added no proportional benefit in the measures studied. A higher number is not automatically a better dose.

In Riksmaten, Livsmedelsverket's national dietary survey, the nutrients where intake often falls below the recommendation are vitamin D, folate and iron, with selenium as a fourth, as we set out in what Riksmaten shows.

Anyone who is pregnant or planning a pregnancy has different requirements and should follow the Swedish Food Agency's advice and speak to their midwife or doctor.

Why is folate paired with vitamin B12 in Peak Performance?

Because the two work in the same cycle, and one cannot stand in for the other. Folate contributes to normal blood formation, vitamin B12 contributes to normal red blood cell formation, and both contribute to normal psychological function and to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. The 5-MTHF from folate hands its methyl group on through a B12 dependent enzyme, which is why the two are usually discussed together.

So both are in Peak Performance in defined amounts, with vitamin B12 at 10 µg as MecobalActive® methylcobalamin from HealthTech BioActives in Spain. We explain that choice in our article on vitamin B12 and its active form.

Why choose folate in Peak Performance rather than a separate folate supplement?

Folate can be bought on its own, and for some people that is the right choice. Our question was a different one: which nutrients belong together in one daily dose for a woman in Sweden? So the folate in Peak Performance sits alongside:

• Vitamin B12, 10 µg, as MecobalActive® methylcobalamin, with thiamin 1.1 mg and niacin 16 mg.
• Vitamin D3, 25 µg, as Quali-D®, and vitamin K2, 90 µg, as MenaQ7®.
• OMEGATEX® algal oil, 500 mg, providing 375 mg of omega 3, of which 300 mg DHA and 50 mg EPA.
• Selenium, 27.5 µg, as L-selenomethionine, zinc, 5 mg, as L-OptiZinc®, and chromium, 20 µg, as chromium picolinate.
• Hytolive® olive fruit extract, 150 mg, providing 15 mg of hydroxytyrosol, with 450 mg of extra virgin olive oil, and Extramel® melon extract, 10 mg.

It does not contain calcium, magnesium or iron. That is what we mean by fewer jars, more thought: one jar instead of several, each ingredient there for a reason, the doses published. Folate is needed every day, so the jar is amber glass with a scented core, made to stay out on the shelf, with refill pouches by subscription.

We have done the selection so that you do not have to. Peak Performance gives you folate as Quatrefolic® 5-MTHF at 200 µg a day, with methylcobalamin B12 and omega 3 from algae, at doses we can explain. You can stop looking.

See Peak Performance, multivitamin for women with omega 3

Go deeper

• Guide: wellbeing from within
• Vitamin B12 and its active form, methylcobalamin
• Nutrient deficiency in Sweden: what Riksmaten shows
• Branded and non-branded ingredients
• Vitamin B1 and the first steps of cellular energy
• Vitamin B3 and the chemistry of everyday energy

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between folate and folic acid?
Folate is the family name, covering the forms found in food and in the body. Folic acid is a synthetic, fully oxidised molecule that must be reduced in two steps before it can take part in the folate cycle. Its stability is why it is used in fortified foods.

What is active folate?
Active folate usually means 5-MTHF, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the folate form predominant in human circulation. It is already reduced and already carries a methyl group. In Peak Performance it comes from Quatrefolic®, the glucosamine salt of the active (6S) isomer, made by Gnosis by Lesaffre.

Is 5-MTHF better than folic acid?
Both are recognised sources of folate. In the studies by Lamers and colleagues, 5-MTHF lowered homocysteine as well as folic acid and raised red blood cell folate more. It also skips the conversion steps folic acid needs, which is why we chose it.

How much folate is in Peak Performance?
200 µg per daily dose, as Quatrefolic® 5-MTHF. That is 100% of the EU nutrient reference value for adults, a nutritional amount chosen to be taken every day.

References

National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Folate: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals.

EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for folate. EFSA Journal. 2014.

EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. Conversion of calcium-L-methylfolate and (6S)-5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid glucosamine salt into dietary folate equivalents. EFSA Journal. 2022.

Lamers, Y.; Prinz-Langenohl, R.; Moser, R.; Pietrzik, K. Supplementation with [6S]-5-methyltetrahydrofolate or folic acid equally reduces plasma total homocysteine concentrations in healthy women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2004.

Lamers, Y.; Prinz-Langenohl, R.; Brämswig, S.; Pietrzik, K. Red blood cell folate concentrations increase more after supplementation with [6S]-5-methyltetrahydrofolate than with folic acid in women of childbearing age. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2006.

Prinz-Langenohl, R.; Brämswig, S.; Tobolski, O.; et al. [6S]-5-methyltetrahydrofolate increases plasma folate more effectively than folic acid in women with the MTHFR 677C→T polymorphism. British Journal of Pharmacology. 2009.

Pietrzik, K.; Bailey, L.; Shane, B. Folic acid and L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate: comparison of clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Clinical Pharmacokinetics. 2010.

Important information

This article is general information and educational reading, not medical advice. It summarises nutrient functions, published scientific information and manufacturer provided ingredient information. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet and a healthy lifestyle, and the recommended daily amount should not be exceeded. Individual needs vary. People who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy should follow national dietary guidance and speak to their midwife or doctor. Anyone taking medication or managing a medical condition should consult a qualified healthcare professional.