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Metabolism of Folic Acid and Citrovorum Factor by Human Subjects¹

One Figure

Department of Foods and Nutrition, School of Home Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Citrovorum factor, on the average, accounted for only one–fourth of the total folic acid activity in the urines of 4 human subjects on a weighed diet containing approximately 25 mg of ascorbic acid and of 15 subjects on restricted self-administered diets containing approximately 100 mg of ascorbic acid. When folic acid had reached its maximum excretion 4 days after the initiation of a 1 mg daily dose of pteroylglutamic acid, citrovorum facotr accounted for only one thirty-second of the folic acid activity of the urine.

Citrovorum factor showed a pronounced but transitory increase in the urine in response to the dose of pteroylglutamic acid; a sharp decline started before folic acid had reached its maximum level of excretion. An excessive daily dose of ascorbic acid (750 mg) superimposed on the dose of pteroylglutamic acid restored the excretion of citrovorum factor to its previous high level. Various hypotheses to explain these relationships are discussed. The production of a folic acid metabolite not measured by Leuconostoc citrovorum may possibly have been favored in metabolism at the expense of citrovorum factor during certain periods of the study.

Supported in part by grants from the Research Committee of the Graduate School from funds supplied by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Preliminary reports have been presented at sessions of the Federation of American Societies for Experiental Biology (Federation Proc., 10: 385, 1951, and 13: 525, 1954).

² Taken in part from a thesis offered by Roberta Bleiler in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of Wisconsin, 1954. Present address: Foods and Nutrition Department, Michigan State College, East Lansing.

³ Taken in part from a thesis offered by Doris Johnson in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1951. Present address: Yale Medical School, New Haven, Conn.

Manuscript received 4 December 1954.