Folic Acid
Vitamin B9 (pteroylglutamic acid) — included in some formulas with the rationale that the skin's rapidly dividing cells depend on folate for DNA replication and repair.
What it does
Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate (vitamin B9), an essential nutrient required for DNA synthesis and repair. In a topical formula it is included with the rationale that keratinocytes — which divide rapidly — depend on folate for normal DNA replication, and that supplemental topical folate has been proposed to support DNA-repair capacity after UV damage. The clinical evidence state is limited: most published work is animal-model wound-healing studies or pre-clinical reconstructed-skin assays; independent human topical RCTs with cosmetic endpoints are sparse.
Also known as
vitamin b9, pteroylglutamic acid, folate
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