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In chemistry, a racemic mixture consists of equal amounts of left and right-handed isomers. Because the two isomers rotate plane- polarised light in opposite directions, a racemic mixture does not rotate plane-polarised light.
The first known racemic mixture was 'racemic acid', which Pasteur found to be a mixture of the two enantiomeric isomers of tartaric acid. A racemate is another term for a mixture of equal quantities of two enantiomorphs.
The reagents of, and the reactions that produce, racemic mixtures are said to be "not stereospecific" or "not stereoselective", for their indecision in a particular stereoisomerism.
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