racemic

adjective

Of or relating to a chemical mixture that contains equal quantities of dextrorotatory and levorotatory forms of a compound and therefore does not rotate the plane of incident polarized light.

Pertaining or relating to grapes in clusters, or to racemes.

In chem., composed of two optically opposite isomeres. The typical case is that of racemic acid (see below), but racemic forms are of frequent occurrence among organic compounds. The racemic form does not act on polarized light.

adjective

Pertaining to, or designating, an acid found in many kinds of grapes. It is also obtained from tartaric acid, with which it is isomeric, and from sugar, gum, etc., by oxidation. It is a sour white crystalline substance, consisting of a combination of dextrorotatory and levorotatory tartaric acids.

adjective

containing equal amounts of dextrorotatory (D) and levorotatory (L) stereoisomers and therefore not being optically active; typically, will be synthetic rather than natural