Microbiologic determination of folic acid derivatives in blood.

By NATHAN GRossowlcz, Fu amnn MANDELBAUM-SHAVIT, Rosy DAVIDOFF AND J. ARONOVITCH F OLIC ACID (F.A. ) deficiency in man may be due to a variety of factors. The most important ones are considered to be unusually poor diets, faulty absorption of the vitamin from the intestinal tract, derangement in the intestinal flora resulting in low synthesis of the vitamin and faulty metabolism of the vitamin in the body. Human blood contains several members of the F.A. family of compounds.”2 Therefore, in order to obtain valid information about the F.A. activity in human blood or serum it seems desirable to measure as many forms of the vitamin as possible. Such approach may facilitate detection of the biochemical lesions responsible for, or connected with, the deficiency. In the present paper, various methods36 modified or developed in our laboratory to achieve this end are described. Most of them have been in use in our laboratory for several years.