CHICAGO – Women who get large amounts of the vitamin folate from food and supplements have a sharply lower risk of developing high blood pressure, a study of 150,000 women found.

It is the first large study to explore the link, and it adds to the mounting body of evidence that the B vitamin might help ward off heart disease and strokes.

But the study’s lead author and an outside expert warned that much more research is needed before concluding that women should increase their consumption of folate.

Folate is found in such foods as oranges, dark green leafy vegetables and beans and legumes. In the United States, it is also added to cereal and flour products to help prevent birth defects.

The new study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, involved one large group of women ages 27 to 44 and another ages 43 to 70. They recorded their folate intake over an eight-year period during the 1990s.