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FOLIC ACID IN BLOOD Folic acid has been recognized as one of the vitamins of the B complex. Within the past few years it has been shown to be required for growth in the rat and for normal red cell production in the chick. Its beneficial effects in pernicious and other macrocytic anemias in man have been demonstrated,1 and use of a microbiologic method of assay has revealed that whole blood of man and of cattle contains 2 micrograms of free folic acid per hundred cubic centimeters, whereas four to eight times as much is present in the whole blood of pigs, chickens and turkeys.2 In all these species the plasma was found to contain less free folic acid than does the whole blood. When the blood was digested with the enzyme taka diastase, the folic acid conjugate was hydrolyzed with the release of large increments of the
