手性化学

近年来，药品市场上手性纯的药物和单一光学异构体的药物急剧增加。手性化合物存在两种不同的构型，称作立体异构体或者对应异构体。手性物质的两种异构体呈镜像对称结构，就像人的左手和右手一样。两种对应异构体的几乎所有的物理性质都相同，包括熔点／沸点和旋光分析的结果等。二者唯一的区别在于：它们使平面偏振光发生旋转的方向不同，平面偏振光是一种单向光源。

Chiral chemistry

The proportion of chirally pure or single enantiomer drugs in the marketplace has risen dramatically in recent years. A chiral chemical is one that can exist in two different forms, called enantiomers. These isomers are mirror images of each other, rather like a pair of hands, Almost all of their physical properties are identical, including melting and boiling points and the results of spectroscopic analysis. Superficially, the only difference is the direction in which they rotate plane polarised light, a unidirectional light source.