• DOI:10.1353/PBM.1983.0006
• Corpus ID: 31993927

Folic Acid: Discovery and the Exciting First Decade

@article{Welch1983FolicAD,
  title={Folic Acid: Discovery and the Exciting First Decade},
  author={Arnold deM. Welch},
  journal={Perspectives in Biology and Medicine},
  year={1983},
  volume={27},
  pages={64 - 75}
}

• A. D. Welch
• Published 7 January 2015
• Biology
• Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

Several detailed reviews of the subject covered in this article have been presented; of these, four of the earliest were those of Snell and Wright [1], Welch and Heinle [2], Jukes and Stokstad [3], and Welch and Nichol [4]· Studies in 1941 and 1942 (Black, McKibbin, and Elvehjem [5]; Black, Overman, Elvehjem, and Link [6]; Welch [7]; Welch, Mattis, and Latven [8]; Welch and Wright [9]; Daft, Ashburn, and Sebrell [10]) of the effects on growing rats of highly purified diets containing sulfonamides (used to inhibit the potential synthesis of nutritionally important factors by intestinal microorganisms) had suggested the involvement of a hitherto unrecognized vitamin. Thus, there was disclosed the need for an essential substance, which, it appeared reasonable to suggest, might be formed from para-aminobenzoic acid by certain intestinal microorganisms. Accordingly, in the absence of a dietary source of the factor, the animals became dependent on the sulfonamide-sensitive bacteria for a supply of a substance they could not themselves synthesize. This growth factor probably was the same as that referred to earlier as the Wills factor or vitamin M (for monkeys) [2]; however, the work in the early 1940s led to the introduction of such terms as the L. casei (from Lactobacillus casei) factor, vitamin Bc (for chicks), and folic acid. The name "folic acid," which eventually came into wide usage, was introduced by 1941 by Mitchell, Snell, and Williams [11] because of the demonstrated occurrence of this substance (or class of substances) in certain leafy vegetables, for example, spinach, although liver and various other biological materials were also sources of the factor(s). Especially