Folee Mechanism of Action

Vitamin/Hematinic.
Pharmacology: Pharmacodynamics: Folic acid is a water-soluble B-complex vitamin found in foods such as liver, kidney, yeast, and green leafy vegetables. Also known as folate or vitamin B₉, folic acid is a member of the vitamin B group which is reduced in the body to tetrahydrofolate, a co-enzyme active in several metabolic processes and produces a haemopoietic response in nutritional megaloblastic anemias. Folic acid is an essential co-factor for enzymes involved in DNA and RNA synthesis. Folic acid is particularly important during phases of rapid cell division, such as infancy, pregnancy, and erythropoiesis, and plays a protective factor in the development of cancer. As humans are unable to synthesize folic acid endogenously, diet and supplementation is necessary to prevent deficiencies.
Pharmacokinetics: Folic acid is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, mainly from the proximal part of the small intestine. Dietary folates are stated to have about half-life the bioavailability of crystalline folic acid. The naturally occurring folate polyglutamates are largely deconjugated and reduced by dihydrofolate reductase in the intestine to form 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5MTHF). Folic acid given therapeutically enters the portal circulation largely unchanged, since it is a poor substrate for reduction by dihydrofolate reductases. The principal storage site of folate is the liver; it is also actively concentrated in the CSF. Folate metabolites are eliminated in the urine and folate in excess of body requirements is excreted unchanged in the urine.