The Collaborative International Dictionary
inactive tartaric acid
mesotartaric \mes`o*tar*tar"ic\, a. [Meso- + tartaric.] (Chem.) Pertaining to, or designating, an acid called also inactive tartaric acid. It is an optically inactive stereoisomer of tartaric acid due to internal compensation of the rotatory activity of the two asymmetric centers; it has a plane of symmetry in the molecule.