Vitamin B9 is most commonly known as folic acid or folate, terms often used interchangeably. Folate occurs naturally in food; folic acid is the synthetic form used in fortified foods and in B-complex supplements.

The best way to get the daily requirement of all essential vitamins, including folate, is to eat a balanced diet that contains a variety of foods. The name folate is derived from the Latin folium meaning `leaf` — your first clue to identifying good sources of the vitamin in leafy vegetables.

In this model, carbon atoms are dark gray, hydrogen atoms are white, nitrogen atoms are blue, and oxygen atoms are red.

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