Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research (ISSN : 0975-7384)

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Original Articles: 2012 Vol: 4 Issue: 2

On the Origin of the Optical Inactivity of meso-Tartaric Acid

Abstract

The structures of meso-tartaric acid and its optical inactivity have been re-examined. The experimental results strongly favour the staggered asymmetric (C1) conformations of meso-tartaric acid in the solid state and in solution. The synthesis, isolation and optical resolution of the stereochemical analogues of the acid reaffirm the asymmetric structures of meso-tartaric acid. The optical inactivity of the acid is not because of its having a plane of symmetry (point group Cs) or centre of symmetry (point group Ci) but mainly because of the asymmetric gauche conformations P-sc and M-sc which constitute a racemic mixture.