ABSTRACT
The discovery of folic acid began in 1930 with the work of Lucy Wills in Bombay, India, on pernicious anemia of pregnancy. Her patients were pregnant women who had been living for a long period on poor diets that consisted of polished rice and white bread and lacked foods of animal origin and vegetables. Wills produced anemia in monkeys by feeding them a diet similar to that eaten by her patients. She then tried all of the vitamins known at that time for the possible favorable effect, but she was unable to cure the disease; however, good responses were obtained by feeding them a commercial preparation of autolyzed yeast called marmot or crude liver extract. Thus, she had discovered a previously unrecognized factor (Wills’ factor), which was subsequently called vitamin M (for monkeys). A number of other investigators were also working on the seemingly unrelated problems of purižcation of a growth factor for certain strains of bacteria and an antianemic factor for chicks. The antianemic factor of the chick was obtained in 1940 by extraction of liver autolysates with 95% alcohol. It was called vitamin Bc. The same year, a factor was identižed in yeast and liver, which was essential for the growth of Lactobacillus casei. These studies turned out to be decisive for the isolation of the antianemic factor. In 1941, Snell and his group reported the isolation of an acid that supported the growth of L. casei. This factor was named folic acid because of its abundance in green leaves (from the Latin folium, meaning leaf). These scientists recognized that folic acid or one with similar chemical and physiological properties also occurred in a number of animal tissues of which liver and kidney are the best sources.
