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An example of such an enantiomer is the sedative thalidomide, which was sold in a number of countries around the world from 1957 until 1961. It was withdrawn from the market when it was found to cause birth defects. One enantiomer caused the desirable sedative effects, while the other, unavoidably [23] present in equal quantities, caused birth ...
In 1848, Louis Pasteur became the first scientist to discover chirality and enantiomers while he was working with tartaric acid. During the experiments, he noticed that there were two crystal structures produced but these structures looked to be non-superimposable mirror images of each other; this observation of isomers that were non-superimposable mirror images became known as enantiomers.
The term "chiral" in general is used to describe the object that is non-superposable on its mirror image. [18] In chemistry, chirality usually refers to molecules. Two mirror images of a chiral molecule are called enantiomers or optical isomers. Pairs of enantiomers are often designated as "right-", "left-handed" or, if they have no bias ...
Enantiomers, also known as optical isomers, are two stereoisomers that are related to each other by a reflection: they are mirror images of each other that are non-superposable. Human hands are a macroscopic analog of this. Every stereogenic center in one has the opposite configuration in the other.
Different enantiomers or diastereomers of a compound were formerly called optical isomers due to their different optical properties. [29] At one time, chirality was thought to be restricted to organic chemistry, but this misconception was overthrown by the resolution of a purely inorganic compound, a cobalt complex called hexol , by Alfred ...
This process is called chiral switching and the resulting enantiopure drug is called a chiral switch. [10] As examples, esomeprazole is a chiral switch of (±)-omeprazole and levocetirizine is a chiral switch of (±)-cetirizine. While often only one enantiomer of the drug may be active, there are cases in which the other enantiomer is harmful ...
[24] [25] If the reaction is started with some of one of the product enantiomers already present, the product acts as an enantioselective catalyst for production of more of that same enantiomer. [26] The initial presence of just 0.2 equivalent one enantiomer can lead to up to 93% enantiomeric excess of the product.
The two enantiomers can be distinguished, for example, by the right-hand rule. This type of isomerism is called axial isomerism. Enantiomers behave identically in chemical reactions, except when reacted with chiral compounds or in the presence of chiral catalysts, such as most enzymes. For this latter reason, the two enantiomers of most chiral ...