adjective

• Composed of dextrorotatory and laevorotatory forms of a compound in equal proportion.

  ‘It has developed a new process to separate racemic epoxides by hydrolysis.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Louis Pasteur performed the first enantiomeric resolution in 1848 while studying crystals of a salt of racemic tartaric acid.’
  • ‘It has an asymmetric carbon atom and therefore has levo and dextro isomers but is supplied as a racemic mixture for anesthetic use.’
  • ‘Phenylpropanolamine, a racemic mixture of norephedrine esters, causes a release of norepinephrine throughout the body and stimulates hypothalamic adrenoreceptors to reduce appetite.’
  • ‘The chemical structure of the natural form of ephedrine is levorotatory, while the synthetic ephedrine is a racemic mixture.’